My Adorable Chain
by Pikachika23
Summary: They say that opposites attract, but is that true? Cheerful Oz meets cynical Alice in a typical classroom setting, but she has a secret. A contract, lost memories, and a strange relationship...where will the world of the Abyss take this couple? Rated T for possible violence.
1. Oz Vessalius

Hello readers! I am Pikachika23, the writer of this story. This is the typical disclaimer: I don't own Pandora Hearts or any of the characters, and the plot is only loosely based on the actual manga, but still includes the original plot elements.

Anyways, the characters in the beginning really only include Oz and Alice, but the others such as Gil, Break, Sharon, etc. will all show up sooner or later. Be mindful that this is also a romance between Oz and Alice, but the rating WILL NOT CHANGE. Just thought I would inform you.

Okay, I will end this note here and enjoy!

Oz

As I walked into the classroom, the one thought echoing in my mind was: _It's the same thing…_

The classroom was typical: rows of desks neatly arranged before the whiteboard. The teacher's desk, which was piled high with lots of papers and scattered with stray pencils and pens, was tucked right in front of the entire class. I caught sight of one of the top papers: a test taken nearly three months ago, with tons of blank spaces that weren't marked incorrect. In other words: this teacher was a slacker.

Most of the desks were occupied. A group of four girls that were conveniently arranged in a square were busy talking their lives away and hair-flipping every two seconds. A kid with these huge glasses was holding a huge book and only looked at me for one second before he lost interest and got sucked back into the pages. Besides him, I didn't get any attention._  
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The teacher was an old, nice lady that probably couldn't touch my shoulder even if she stood on the tips of her toes. I had to crane my neck downward to see her, which made me feel pretty rude. "Everyone, this is Oz Vessalius," she said, standing on several huge dictionaries in the front of the class. "He is a new student here and I hope you'll treat him as your friend."

Then, when before I was invisible, twenty pairs of eyes fixed their target as me. The whispering immediately began. "Vessalius? As in Vessalius Resorts?"

"His father must be that famous hotel owner!"

"His family must be rich!"

Then, the murmuring ceased, and they waited, anticipating and excited. I had to say something…anything…All I really wanted to do was tell them to please, just leave me alone, I don't want this, not again…

Instead, with a huge eye smile, I said: "Hi everyone! I'm Oz, and I look forward to attending school with all of you!"

_Idiot._

The girls swooned after I spoke, like I was releasing pheromones just by greeting the class. Everyone clapped politely, almost carefully. I mentally sighed. I knew that no matter how outgoing I was, there was no way they were going to overlook the fact that I was the son of one of the richest people in Japan. They would treat me more like a servant treats their master than they would treat me as a friend.

I always remembered moving around Japan. When I was five, I had walked straight into a van of a couple of kidnappers after they held out some candy to me. Yup, in other words, I did _exactly _what they tell kindergartners not to do: accept gifts from strangers. Father hired a complete police force in order to get me back home. He knew that it would happen again if necessary precautions weren't taken. He suggested bodyguards to me, but I didn't want them. Considering that I was five when he told me this, I imagined a bunch of giants wearing black suits and pointing guns everywhere. It took him five hours to coax me back out from hiding under the bed.

But later I realized it was just that I didn't want to be followed around my whole life. Instead, I agreed on one thing: I would attend public schools, where it was always so crowded a kidnapping couldn't be missed. And if anything was attempted, I would move. Immediately. It was a little better than having bodyguards. Just a little.

This was probably my fifth school, which wasn't too bad considering it was ten years since I was successfully kidnapped. You would've thought that people would come daily to carry me away, but they didn't. "Sit right back there, next to Alice," the teacher told me, waving her arm in such an obscure direction that I couldn't tell which empty seat would be mine. "Alice, please raise your hand."

But before I could even spot a hand from shooting up into the air, one girl commented, "Oh, but Mrs. Luis, don't you think that if Oz sits next to her, he'll lose all of his happiness? After all, she sucks your _soul._" The rest of the class giggled.

"I'd appreciate if you'd be quiet once in a while," Mrs. Luis responded coolly, and I could guess that this kind of thing was nothing more than typical inside this classroom. But, the comment did make me wonder about this "Alice" person. "Alice, please raise your hand."

Slowly, an arm was raised into the air from the far back corner next to the windows. There sat a girl with long, brown hair and a small plait down each side. She wore a dark sweatshirt with the cartoon of a white rabbit falling down a hole, a pair of jeans, and white boots. Her legs were crossed underneath the desk. She was staring out the window, not even looking at me. She was bored, and I wasn't doing anything to help her situation.

I walked down the aisle and plopped down in the desk next to her. "Hi," I said brightly. "I'm Oz."

"I heard you before," she said absentmindedly, still staring out the glass.

…

What, no introduction or anything? Huh, this was strange. As Mrs. Luis began to start the class, I wondered what was so different about this Alice character. It had come to my attention that girls just naturally swooned as long as they were within a ten-yard radius of me. But she wasn't even shaken.

No, I'm not an arrogant jerk that needs to have every single girl chasing after him. In fact, it makes me pretty scared when a bunch of members of the female gender stare at me with those creepy, bright and blinking eyes. But it was normal for that to happen, and a girl that couldn't care less about my presence was pretty out of the ordinary. It piqued my curiosity.

And a curious Oz is…interesting.


	2. Alice of the Abyss

Alice

My name is Alice. And that's it. Just Alice.

I come from a place that is dark and filled with scary things unimaginable to the people of Earth. I don't mean to sound like a creepy alien but…it's true. It is a place of horror and once you venture in you can never get out…

…At least, that's what they tell you. It's totally untrue, of course, because otherwise how would I be sitting inside a classroom, looking out a window and seeing light? Of course, I think of this so-called "school" as laaame - why the heck would it be ordered to have a bunch of kids go to a building every day to sit down and learn geometry or the history of Japan? Useless. But if this place could make me look normal...there's no harm to it.

There was a new kid in class, but I didn't really care. I didn't care about anything, if you think about it. Because I was running out of time. So while the class was gossiping and he was being introduced, I wasn't paying attention.

I was absorbed in staring at the sun through the window next to me – something that didn't exist in my "home" – that I didn't even notice that class was over and we were being dismissed to lunch. Instead, I was glued to my spot, watching the yellow orb in the sky. "Um…Alice, was it?"

I slowly blinked, silver spots streaking across my vision. I stared for too long again. I turned my head and looked up, spotting the new kid standing next to my desk. He had blond hair with tufts that fell over these brilliant eyes with the color of emerald. And he was smiling. As I blinked, he kept _on _smiling. How could his mouth not get tired? And the strange thing was, it didn't look like a fake, plastered-on smile: it looked like it was real. I glanced around: the classroom was empty except for us.

"Yes, it is Alice," I answered belatedly. "Did you want something?"

There was a reason I didn't have friends and was isolated in class. It was because they thought I was introverted and antisocial. They thought I was a witch and if I spoke to them, I would curse them. They thought that if they touched me, I would transform into a wild animal and maul them. It was funny.

"I just thought I would say hi," he said happily. Oh my gosh. You could practically see all these little pink flowers around his head. It was really creepy. I edged toward the window to get as far away from this freak as possible.

"Oh. Hi, then," I answered in broken syllables, willing him to go away.

Of course, since the whole world is against me, he just smiled even more, if that was possible, and said, "Hi! I'm Oz Vessalius, and I was born on September fourteenth, which means that I just turned fifteen a few days ago! You seem like an interesting person, Alice, and I would really like it if we could be friends! I probably won't be here long, chances are I'll get kidnapped or something, but for however long I'm here I hope we'll get along!"

Oh my gosh…this kid was a freaking monster. I was getting nervous. I never got nervous. And he was seriously scaring the daylights out of me. "Sorry," I said quickly. "But I don't plan on being friends with you."

I thought for sure that it would make him run away like a discouraged puppy. But instead…

"Oh, you are soooo cute!" And he reached out and ruffled my hair like _I_ was some kind of dog or something.

"Don't touch me!" I snapped, seriously losing what little nerve I had.

He was still smiling. How was that possible? He was supposed to be scared of me…surely he noticed how my classmates treated me? "I know we'll get along very well in the future," he told me brightly. Then he strode out of the room.

I slouched in my seat. What was going on? I was afraid of a flowery, blond kid. There were way more things to be scared about…

I come from a place called the Abyss. Back in the day, people on Earth would think of it as a prison – and that is exactly what it is. It is a warped dimension of monsters called Chains that take horrible forms. There is no light. Darkness rules in the Abyss, and over the Chains.

Nowadays, people don't even know what the Abyss is. It has been wiped away from the memories of every single being on Earth. But not from my mind, oh no. Because that is where I come from.

Because I am a Chain.


	3. The Star

Hey, so I'm updating often at the beginning because luckily schoolwork hasn't killed me just yet. But later it'll be more difficult for me, so please be patient with me! Also, I would appreciate any comments/ reviews you have for me! Thanks!

Oz

I liked Alice. She was seriously pretty cute. Cuter than most of the girls I knew or did know, anyway. It was also the first time a person had made me feel comfortable in my school.

Her face when she got angry was hilarious. You could practically see that vein they draw on manga characters when they get mad on her face. I almost thought that she would explode when I messed up her hair. It was comical, even if she didn't think so.

During lunch, which was an hour long, I walked around the school perimeter. I probably should have been in the lunchroom, eating, but I didn't want to go through the torture of being watched while I was filling my stomach. No thanks.

There were a bunch of sports fields and a baseball diamond, as expected. The grass was just as green as the one in my front yard, which is saying something since these special scientists that created a lawn-care ingredient that is guaranteed to nurture grass on its own for a whole month. Yeah, my dad has some pretty strange workers.

There were some picnic tables around, where no one sat, and some trees that had bright green leaves. It was nice and warm out, which was perfect weather for spring. I liked spring. It wasn't too cold or too hot, and everything was green. Green was a pretty color.

I walked around to the back of the building. It was just a small field of grass and some trees here and there. Nothing that much different from the rest of the school's exterior. Except, of course, there was a figure lying in the middle of the grass.

I could tell by the long tendrils of brown hair that it was Alice, on her back and facing the sky. She didn't notice I was there. So of course, I did what everyone would do.

"Hi, Alice!"

When I hovered my head over hers with my sudden greeting, she sat up so fast that our foreheads crashed together. She snarled in pain. My skull rang, but even though my head was screaming, I laughed. "What are you doing here, blondie?" she shouted, rubbing her forehead beneath her bangs. She didn't look amused.

I waved. "Hi, Alice! It's lunch break, and I thought I would explore the school! And then I found you here!"

Obviously, no matter what I said, she would still scowl at me. "Don't just sneak up on people like that! It's rude and annoying!" She flicked her eyes from one side to another, as if watching over her shoulders. Then she stabbed a finger at me. "And you hurt my head!"

She had the cute, angry look again. I laughed again. "What's with that look?" I asked. "Don't you ever know to smile?"

Alice glared at me. "You do enough smiling for the both of us."

Well…that was true. I scratched the back of my head. "But it wouldn't hurt! People would like you more in class, then."

She blinked at me, then narrowed her eyes again. "Have you been watching me?"

_Yes. _"Not in particular."

She watched me for a moment longer, a suspenseful moment, before turning away. "Whatever. Just don't bug me, okay? I don't have the time, and I hate annoying people like you."

I perked up. This was interesting. "Annoying people like me? What other annoying people have you met?"

Alice

Shoot. Shouldn't have said that. You stupid Alice, think with your head and not with your mouth.

"Just go away," I snapped. "You're bugging me and I am a skilled fighter."

_Oh? Why don't you show him your fighting, Alice?_

I froze up. That voice…no…not now. NO.

Oz was blabbing on behind me, but I couldn't hear him. Because _that voice _was echoing through my ears.Just speak of the devil and it will arrive. _Yes, Alice, it's me…I just thought that I would be nice and warn you that your time is almost up._

I clenched a fist, shutting my eyes and willing the voice to go away, just like I did to Oz. _Oh, but I must be your timer, _the voice continued inside my mind. _Even if you think I'm annoying, Alice, you need me. So then you will know how much time is left before you are punished for trying to escape the Abyss._

"Alice?"

_If you don't believe me, you can always look at that seal on your wrist. _

Fearfully and hesitantly, I pulled back my left sleeve. There was a tattoo-like seal there that used to not even exist: but after I used up most of my Chain energy to get out of the Abyss temporarily, a star had begun to etch itself onto my skin. It began to form slowly, black drawings seeping onto my skin, going in a clockwise direction. The ten-pointed star was nearly complete. And at that time...

"Alice, are you okay?"

_And if that happens, you'll be sucked right back home! _The sound of shrill laughter resounded through my head. _If you come back right now, maybe I will let you off easy._

She would never.

_Why not, Alice?_

Never ever, never ever would she forgive me._  
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_After all, I am your sister._


	4. Her Situation

Hey people. I wrote this a few days ago but my internet was rebelling against me so I couldn't publish it. And also, I was kind of sick, so that might have been a hindrance, too. I was sick while I was editing this, so it might not be as good as the other chapters. Enjoy!

Oh, and thanks for the reviews and alert +'s. It makes me really happy that you would take time to comment and add it to your story alerts! Thank you so much! ^_^

Oz

"Alice? Alice…? Aaaaaaliiiiice!"

I leapt in front of her, waving my arms around frantically like a windmill. She looked dazed, her violet eyes filled with confusion and fear, and staring at her wrist. Her face was getting pale. It was like she was standing in a bubble and couldn't see or hear me.

I was starting to get a little distressed because of her expression and lack of response. "Hello?" I shouted right in her face.

She merely blinked and lifted her head to look at me. "I-I'm sorry, I have to go," she muttered so quickly I almost didn't hear her. Then she turned and began to rush to who-knows-where, but luckily my reaction time was fast enough. I grabbed her wrist before she could escape: except she was already running. So in other words, my arm pulling her back tugged me forward and her backward. Both of us tumbled onto the grass, which although looked nice and soft, was simply a thin layer above a tough earth.

"Don't do things like that!" she snapped, sitting up and rubbing her back. "Don't you have any common sense? At this rate you'll shove me right into a car while I'm crossing the street!"

"Sorry," I said happily. She was angry; at least whatever had been bothering her before wasn't bugging her anymore. I flashed white teeth at her, even though truthfully I had landed pretty hard and I was sure I had broken my tailbone. "I'm an instinctive person. I do things without thinking."

"I can see that!" She grimaced and clutching some grass on both sides of her. It looked like the blades were about to be uprooted. Then, after a moment, she whipped her head toward me, almost hitting me with her hair. "Why do you keep following me around? You're not my dog!"

"It's 'cause you're different."

"Are you insulting me?"

I shook my head, plucking a yellow dandelion from the grass and twirling the stem between my fingers. "Of course not. Why would I follow you around – like a dog – if I was insulting you?" I leaned toward her, and she leaned backward on impulse. "I'd like to be your friend! I'm really serious, even if you don't believe me!"

Alice stared back at me with those huge purple eyes. "You remember when you said you wouldn't be around very long? Or something like that?" she said abruptly.

I blinked for a moment. I had expected her to snarl at me like she did in the classroom, but now she sounded pretty serious. "Uh…yeah."

"Well, that applies for me, too. I'm going to disappear from this place really soon, which is why I don't want any friends or whatever here."

Huh? She would be gone soon? To where? Why? So many questions and I bet that she would not be happy to acknowledge them. I decided on just a comment: "That's too bad. I would have liked to help you out with getting along with the class and stuff."

I then lied down on my back and stared up at the sky with my hands folded behind my head. White puffs of cloud drifted across the blue background. Then, Alice poked her face into my vision. "You said you would help me?" she asked.

I nodded as best as I could with my head's position. Alice paused for a moment. "Then, if I told you something totally out of this world, would you still help me?"

Uh-oh. I didn't like where this was going. It was a good thing I wasn't stupid _enough_ to just agree to anything. "Well, it kind of depends…but I might."

She grabbed my arm and yanked me upright so fast that I thought my shoulder and arm would become disconnected. "Okay, well, listen carefully," she said, her face entirely serious. I nodded, preparing myself for whatever bizarre thing she was going to say next. Alice breathed in, her eyes closed, looking totally calm...before letting out a huge string of words that I could barely keep up.

"So I'm from this place called the Abyss that you probably don't know of but it's this different dimension filled with monsters called Chains and I'm one of them and it took me long enough to get out because I had to use up nearly all of my power in order to escape into this dimension and I have to find a contractor so then I can use more power and then stay here without worrying about getting dragged back to that place and if I don't in the amount of time I have left then I'll be taken back and then I'll never get back out again."

She then blinked at me with these huge eyes afterwards, but I was too confused. Abyss...Chains...power...get back out...? What? "Wait…can you say that slower?" I asked, overwhelmed by this huge line of words.

Alice grimaced and crossed her arms. "Why? Did I talk too fast for you?"

"Sort of…?" Did she seriously expect me to be able to keep up?

She sighed. "I guess you wouldn't understand. Fine. Listen carefully."

I was prepared. At least, I thought I was. I mean, what could this girl possibly ask for?

But this conversation was the one that would change my life – forever.

^ Ew. Cliched ending.


	5. Serious Conversation

Alice

Oz leaned forward slightly, intently listening. I wondered if he was even a tiny bit suspicious about what kind of "out of this world" things I was going to tell him. "So, I'm from a place called the Abyss – "

"What's the Abyss?" he interrupted. "Is that in America?"

What an idiot. "No," I said slowly. "It is in a different dimension."

He raised an eyebrow, skeptical. I was surprised that he wasn't smiling and looked entirely serious. "Like another universe? That actually exists?"

"Yes!" I said. "It does. It is a warped place where every turn looks exactly the same and you're in danger no matter how hard you try to run away!"

He blinked. "Sounds like a storybook."

"It is _not _a storybook!" I snapped. I had tried to be patient from the beginning so that he could understand better and I would have a better chance of having him help me – but this kid was entirely too close-minded! "I've lived there for as long as I can remember!"

He held up a finger like a child coming up with an idea. "So for fifteen years?"

I leaped forward and shoved my face closer to his. Maybe a smaller distance between us would make it easier to input the facts into his brain. "No! In different dimensions time runs differently! So even though it may have been fifteen years here, it might as well have been more than one hundred years in the Abyss!"

He blinked at me before saying, "But if we were just talking about the time here, it would be fifteen years, right?"

I wanted to strangle myself. How could I possibly even consider this…this…this _numbskull _as a potential contractor? _Desperate times call for desperate measures, don't they? _said _that _voice in my head. And I went from frustrated to entirely patient and peace-like.

"Yes, it would be," I said, feeling like an angel had just possessed me.

"Wow. You've been there for a while."

Okay. It was a slow start, but we were getting somewhere. "So basically, the Abyss is filled with monsters that are called formally as Chains."

"Chains. As in like, with links?"

You stupid little – "Yeah. If it helps you remember the name, you can think of it that way."

Oz paused for a moment, thinking. "You said you were one of these _Chains?_"

"Exactly."

"So are you some kind of alien?"

I hated him so much at that moment. I just wanted to stand up and reach into the Abyss for my scythe and then - "In a way."

"Cool!" He beamed and then said, "And you used up power to get out of the Abyss?"

"Yes!" He was getting it!

"So…what kind of powers do you have? Can you show me?"

Gosh…as expected. "I said that I used too much of it out to escape."

"But you said that you would get dragged back if enough time passed."

"Yes, I did."

"So why did you use most of it up to get out if you would wind back there anyway?"

I partly wanted to just rip my hair out right then and there. "Because if I come here, I might have a better chance of keeping away from the Abyss _forever_!"

"Oh. And how would you do that?"

Finally. To the interesting part. "I need a contractor."

"And how would this 'contractor' help you escape permanently?"

"Well, the contractor would allow me to use lots of power without limits. So that way, the Abyss wouldn't be able to control me anymore and therefore wouldn't be able to drag me back."

"I see…so what would the contractor get in return?"

Huh. I hadn't really thought about that. I heard that other Chains who escaped from the Abyss tricked their contractor by lying and saying that they could change certain, horrible events in the past. So the contractor would agree. I mean, what person wouldn't want to change their awful mistakes from the past? But looking at this kid, who could smile for hours at a time without breaking stride, I don't think he exactly regretted anything in life. So I couldn't trick him into it with that.

"Um…" I said, thinking. "You would get a friend, I suppose."

One look and I could see that I said the right thing. His eyes brightened instantly, from plain emerald to dazzling emerald. I sort of had to squint against it, to tell the truth. "Really?"

"Yeah. The Chain would become your friend." Heck, if I could escape the Abyss for that tiny little requirement, I'd do it twenty times over.

"So if someone formed a contract with you, they could be your friend?"

I had him on the hook. This was working out extremely well. "Yep!"

Oz nodded, a little sadly. Huh? Why was he sad? "Whoever would become your contractor sure would be lucky."

…He was almost just as annoying as my sister. "I'm asking you!" I finally hollered, unable to suppress the frustration inside me.

He lifted his head up to look at me. "Really? You're asking _me?_"

"Why else would I explain this all to you?"

"You would agree to be my friend? Really? _Really?_"

He looked so happy, I almost felt bad for him that he was agreeing to form a contract with me so that a downer like me would be his friend. Then again, he should be appreciative that I wasn't tricking him and would actually live up to my promise. I couldn't feel bad for him. I was a desperate Chain and I needed to make a contract fast. "So will you do it?" I asked.

He beamed. Those pink flowers reformed around his head, accompanied by a bright yellow background. "Obviously! What do I have to do?"

I paused for a moment. I had a feeling he wouldn't like this, no matter how optimistic he was.

"Er…drink my blood?"


	6. Blood

Oz

I couldn't help it – I laughed. I mean, the phrase "drink my blood" combined with that awkward expression on Alice's face kind of pricked at my humor. Also, the fact that we had such a serious conversation for a few moments annoyed me. I needed to stop being serious for just a few seconds.

I liked this whole contract thing. I mean, it wasn't like we were losing anything, although Alice certainly would be if I didn't agree. She'd be stuck in that prison of a place or whatever it was. Even though I couldn't understand what kind of place it was, the way she looked when she talked about it and the determination in her voice when she spoke about escaping made me think it must be a pretty bad home. And if she went back there, I wouldn't be able to see her interesting expressions anymore. Yes. By completing a contract, it would be a win for the both of us!

After I finished my laughing, I glanced up to see that Alice's expression hadn't changed. I sobered up. "You weren't serious, were you?" I asked, hoping she'd say that _that _look was the look she got when she was amused at her own joke.

She shook her head. "I was _very_ serious."

Oh.

Well.

That one condition sort of ruined my high expectation of this contract. "But why?" I demanded, whining. "That's disgusting! Drinking blood is something that annoying mosquitoes and vampires do!"

"I didn't make up the rules!" Alice snapped right back. I could tell by her tone that she didn't like the idea either. At least even though she claimed to be a Chain, she seemed like she was as human inside as her appearance outside. "If I had a choice I wouldn't want to cut myself so you could drink my stupid blood!"

"Well I don't want to drink it anyways!"

She scowled at me, her eyebrows knit in frustration. "Oh, so now you're backing out when you were so eager to agree before, aren't you? I thought you were the optimist; think of some stupid excuse that makes it perfectly normal to drink blood!"

How could she ask that of me? My temper began to boil. It had been a while since that happened. "No one could possibly do that!" I shot back. "And if I _was_ capable of thinking of something that would make drink…drinking…drinking _blood _totally normal, don't you think that would be kind of _weird?_" I mean, could _you _imagine something like pouring blood into a paper cup and then…and then…and then actually drinking…

I crouched over on the ground, my hands pressed to the grass, breathing hard and trying to get that awful image out of my mind. I felt sick. No matter what, I wouldn't be able to do it.

"Calm down," Alice said. She sounded like she was trying to keep her composure herself. "I'm sure if we add a little artificial flavoring, you won't even think that it's…you know, that it's blood."

"That isn't the point here! It's my moral values! Drinking blood is…that is disgusting in so many ways!"

Alice glared at me challengingly. "How? First of all, I'm agreeing to it and it's _my _blood. It's not like you're cutting my insides open. Second of all, I see people eating pig's blood in Jell-o form are over the streets!" [Disclaimer: Jell-o is not my property.]

"That's pig's blood!" I said in return. She obviously just found it disgusting. I found it as disgusting and morally impossible. "It's different than drinking a human's!"

"Oh, so you're saying it's okay to slaughter pigs and take their blood then! That is being mean to the pigs! And also, even if I was a human a long time ago, I'm not anymore! I'm a stupid Chain!"

Was that supposed to make me feel better? Because if it was, it was a complete failure. "Forget it, then!" I said, leaping to my feet. "Since you think it's so normal and easy, find someone who shares your opinion and get them to be your contractor! I don't need someone like you to become my friend anyway!"

I charged away in a haze of anger. I wasn't quite sure why I was so mad, to tell the truth. I mean, I was looking forward to the contract and everything, but that one little requirement just ticked me off. I gained more and more confidence as I headed toward the school. That's right. I didn't need a Chain or whatever to get along with me. There was bound to be someone else that didn't see me as a rich kid, and someone that was normal, too.

Someone who I didn't need to form a contract with for them to spend time with me.

I was so deep in thought that I wound up tripping and falling - at least, that's what I first thought. When I landed, I realized that no, it wasn't because I wasn't paying attention and got my foot caught on a rock, the ground itself was shaking extremely hard. It kind of felt like when you're inside of a bouncy house and fall down, and the other kids keep jumping so you can't get back up. Only this wasn't a bouncy house. It was the hard ground, and it hurt like heck.

I was confused. The world was shaking too, so I could barely see. An earthquake? What was going on?

As quickly as it started, the shaking suddenly stopped. I got my bearings and got to my feet. I glanced around frantically, my heart pounding and blood pulsing within my ears. I was still shocked and I had no idea what was going on. The school was in a normal state, no trees had fallen...it was like the shaking didn't even happen. _What's going on?_

I turned around, and then I saw Alice. My eyes widened: she had dropped to the ground onto her knees, her hands clutching at her head. She was surrounded by a circle of purple beams of light that shot up toward the sky. "_Pay for your sin,_" a girl's voice said from the air. The voice sounded so similar to Alice's - but it was too horrible, too warped to be her.

"_Return to the Abyss!_"


	7. Going Home

Oz

My mind whirled, a tornado of its own thoughts. _What's happening? What's wrong with Alice? Who does that voice belong to? _

The sky was darkening, contrasting against the neon purple light that was twirling and dancing around Alice. She wasn't standing up. Why wasn't she standing? Wasn't it scary in that ring of light? Shouldn't she try and run?

"_Oh, Alice, I can't wait until you come back!" _the voice continued. My ears cringed at the sound of it. "_We should spend more time together! It will be so much fun!_"

Wind was building up, too. Whatever was happening was causing a huge disturbance in the atmosphere. The wind battered at my clothes and hair, slapping at the trees and grass, unrelenting on any of the surroundings. And in the midst of my confusion and awe, it became clear in my mind:

This. This is the Abyss.

There were no windows on the side of the building that was facing us, oddly enough. Maybe it was a good thing; I didn't want people to see this horrible thing that was happening to Alice. I wonder what the people in the school would think, when they got to class after lunch ended and see that outside, a storm was brewing. _I was supposed to have soccer practice today; I can't ride my bike back home in this weather; Ugh, not a thunderstorm again._ They would pass it off as a weather phenomenon. As just another rainstorm.

They didn't know what was happening.

"_Does your head hurt, Alice?_" the voice said. "_It hurts a lot, doesn't it? Don't worry, I'll make you forget all about it when you come back home!_" Giggles resounded across the wind; giggles that made me shudder and froze me to the very core. They roused the fear that was dormant inside of me, and before I knew it, terror was surging through my veins and making me shake in the presence of that voice.

Who was this person? _I can't wait until you come back…when you come back home…_ The words pulsed through my head over and over. I watched Alice, who was crouched over in pain, her hair whipping around in the wind. It wasn't that she didn't want to leave that circle on the ground: it was that she couldn't. She was trapped. How could she be trapped? Even after only a few hours of knowing her, I knew that she was tough. She could pull through anything. So why...? What was stopping her? And then it hit me.

Alice was being taken back to the Abyss.

I didn't know what made me do it. I was scared, terrified, so much that I was afraid to move. But somehow my body rebelled against my mind, and it took off running – straight towards Alice.

"_What's this?_" the voice said. "_Oh, Alice, is this the poor little child that you chose to be your contractor? How positively pitiful!_"

Adrenaline forced me to keep going, and then I skidded to a stop right at the rim of that supernatural ring. "I won't let you take Alice back there!" I shouted to the wind, my voice drowning along the air currents. "You can't do it!"

"_I see!_" said the voice in understanding, laughter ringing across the air. "_The resemblance is too much! How sad, Alice, I thought that you had lost your memories…but you were just pretending, weren't you?_"

What was she talking about? Resemblance? Memories? I had so many questions, but even though I wanted to ask them, my mouth moved on its own. "Don't be stupid," I snapped. "Stop wasting my time and just let Alice go!"

"Oz…stop…"

I glanced across to Alice, still leaning on the grass for support. "There's nothing…" she said, her voice so weak and quiet that I shouldn't have been able to hear her, "nothing you can do."

"_See? Even Alice herself knows the truth," _the voice said. "_You, failed contractor, you should be grateful enough that I'm not dragging you back to the Abyss as well."_

Failed contractor. I was a failed contractor.

It was my fault that this was happening. If I hadn't been so full of myself and stupid, the contract would have been finished already and this wouldn't be happening. The two of us would be inside the school, waiting for the last bell to ring. Watching the second hand on the clock tick by. But now…

Because of me…I would never see Alice. Ever again.

"_Come back home, Alice!_"

The wind blew stronger. I could barely keep myself on my feet. The twirling purple lights moved faster, growing into a column of violet so tall that it looked as if it would pierce the sky itself. Alice's wrist began to glow…a shape on her wrist? A…star? The glow grew larger, expanding from her wrist and devouring her body until there was nothing left of her but a bright white silhouette.

She was being taken away.

Transported back to the Abyss.

This would be the last time I would see her. I would never know what had happened to her. Would she be stuck in the darkness, alone? Tormented? Crying?

I wouldn't let that happen. I couldn't…not while I was watching.

Before I knew what I was doing, I leaped through the purple light as if nothing was there but air, and wrapped my arms around the glowing Alice. The voice shrieked in discontent, but it was too late.

The white light was taking us away.


	8. Little Alice

This one is a little longer than usual. I just want to tell you that I won't be updating as much, probably, because I can feel the writer's block looking over my shoulder. O_O

Alice

Pain. Pain. Nothing. Nothing but pain.

My whole body felt like it was rejecting my soul. There was a war through my insides, my veins, my bones…it hurt to no end. Tears flowed endlessly, and even those droplets of water stung and seared my skin as if they were fire. I wanted to die, if that was what it took to rid myself of the excruciating monster tearing through me.

And amidst my pain, from somewhere came a pair of arms that entwined around my weeping body.

And the pain dulled…it dulled just a little. But I was so happy and so relieved…

I never wanted those arms to disappear.

Oz

When I opened my eyes, Alice wasn't there.

I glanced around to find myself lying on grass, staring up at a pure blue sky. Alice was nowhere to be seen. I panicked – had I failed? Had Alice been taken away, back to the Abyss?

But when I managed to focus…I found that we weren't at the school anymore.

This place was a garden. A beautiful flower garden with blooming violets and daffodils among the grass. There were marble statues of angels with unfurled wings standing around me. There were tiny butterflies fluttering around and dancing in the air.

And then I heard the laughter.

I turned my head and saw a little girl rushing into the garden, her giggles filling the air. She wore a pretty pink dress and clutched a rabbit stuffed animal within her arms.

But I was so confused…because she looked exactly like Alice.

Her hair was shorter, but the plaits were the same. And her violet eyes were definitely the same as the ones on Alice. Her face was definitely chubbier, and she was so much smaller...I couldn't judge by appearance, I knew that. But it felt like it was her.

Why was she here? And why was she a little girl?

"Jack! Jack!" little Alice said.

She ran straight past me without seeing me and leaped into the arms of a man that I didn't notice before. "Jack", I presumed. His blond hair was tied back into a braid, and he wore a gentle smile that reached his kind, glimmering green eyes. He caught little Alice in his arms. "Where are we going today, Jack?" little Alice asked excitedly.

"We're staying right here," Jack replied.

Little Alice pouted and crossed her arms tightly around her stuffed bunny. "When are we going to be leave the garden? I want to see the city!"

"Now, you know that you aren't allowed to leave the garden, Alice."

I watched the two of them converse with one another. This Alice…she was so different from the Alice I knew. Little Alice wore a smile on her face and greeted people with a great big hello. The Alice I knew…

Despite the differences, I could feel that they were the same person. I knew it. I didn't know why it felt so unquestionable, but I felt strongly that this little Alice was the younger her. Which also meant another thing:

This. This was one of her memories.

_How sad, Alice, I thought that you had lost your memories…but you were just pretending weren't you?_

That was what the voice had said…did Alice really lose her past memories? Then…did she not remember what I was seeing right now? I didn't understand…

"You will, though."

I glanced up, spotting Jack, who was looking right at me. Alarm bells went off in my head. How was that possible? How could he see me if this was a memory? I was beginning to have doubts. Was this a memory…? It couldn't be, if someone from the past could see me standing there, watching them.

Little Alice glanced at me, too, but her eyes told me that she couldn't see me. That confirmed it pretty well. If she couldn't see me, a human in the flesh, then I wasn't there. I was just witnessing her past. So how could this "Jack" see me? "Jack? Who are you talking to?"

Jack smiled and said, "No one, Alice."

Right before inky blackness blotted out the whole scene, I thought:

_This Jack fellow…we have to find him._

Drip…drip…drip…drip…

I blinked open my eyes to the sound of dripping water. _Drip…drip…drip…drip…_

It was dark. I could barely see anything. I sat up and waited for my eyes to adjust so I could at least see the shadows of my surroundings. Where was I? _Drip…drip…drip…drip…_

It was so quiet…I breathed softly, so I could hear. But there was nothing to hear. Nothing but dripping water. _Drip…drip…drip…drip…_

"You finally awake?"

I shouted in alarm at the sudden voice and sat bolt upright, banging my head on a hard surface overhead. Ouch. That was going to hurt for a while. "Alice?" I asked. "Where are you?"

The ceiling lifted and I spotted Alice, sitting right next to me. She lifted a piece of wood from our heads and let some dim, gray light flow in. She looked…normal. Her face was expressionless as she looked me over. "Hello, Oz," she said to me.

In that moment, I was so happy to see her. To see that it wasn't all a dream, that I had let her be taken away. I lunged forward and grabbed her in a hug. "Alice! You're okay!"

"Ack! Oz! Let go!"

"You didn't get dragged to the Abyss after all! I'm so happy!"

Her arm became freed and she bonked me hard on the head, right where I had hit it before. "You idiot!" she snapped. "Great job! Now we're _both _in the Abyss!"

Huh?

I glanced around and saw that we were sitting inside a rather large cardboard box. I peered over the edge and saw a haze of some weird gray fog that surrounded us. Uh-oh. "This…this is the Abyss?" I asked, swallowing nervously.

"Why did you do that?" she demanded, grabbing me by the collar. "Why? Are you stupid? Did you think that you could just bring me back by hanging on to me?"

"Er…yes?"

"_You idiot! _Why did you do that? Didn't you think?"

I shrugged as best as I could. "Not really."

She practically snarled at me. I thought she was going to beat me up but instead dropped my collar and let me fall back to the ground. She turned her back to me and said, "Keep behind me at all times and tell me if you feel like anything is weird or out-of-place." She then looked over her shoulder, glaring. "Okay?"

I beamed and leaped up. "Right!"

And off we were, into the fog of the Abyss.


	9. Sister

Hey people. My internet practically DIED a few days ago, which is the reason why I haven't been uploading lately. Right now I'm over at a friend's house using their internet. It'll be a few days before MY internet is actually fixed, so sit patiently, because I have a bunch of chapters already written. Enjoy and review!

Alice

Oz followed behind me as I blindly walked through the fog. "So where exactly are we in the Abyss?" he asked extremely loudly.

I cringed at his voice. I whirled around, to tell him to lower his voice when our heads bonked together from my turning. The pain rang through my skull, but it was nothing compared to what it felt like when I was being transported back here. "That's the third time I've hit my head today," Oz declared, rubbing his head while smiling.

"Be quiet!" I hissed. "Do you want to get killed?"

He tilted his head like a confused puppy. "What are you talking about?"

I gritted my teeth. It seemed like nothing I had told him had been drilled into that empty head of his enough. "The Chains here will attack you if you attract too much attention."

He actually laughed. He laughed! It just made me bristle even more. "You worry too much, Alice. I'm sure the Chains are a lot nicer than you make them out to be. I mean, look at you! You're a Chain, and you're awesome!"

I could tell what he was doing, even if he didn't know it himself. He was saying that it was _my _fault that he didn't believe the Chains were dangerous. Because I was so "awesome", apparently. I scowled. "Yeah, well, if you meet another Chain, it won't be quite as nice as me," I said.

He shrugged, but it was clear he wasn't convinced. He glanced around at the fog that hugged us with its damp and gray arms. "Is this what the whole Abyss looks like?" he asked.

I shook my head. "Nope." I then looked around. His question actually got me to thinking as well. "To tell the truth, usually the Abyss isn't foggy at all. I think this might be a reaction from me being dragged back here."

I began walking through the mist, trying to see any objects or shadows that could tell me where we were. Oz scurried after me, saying, "Really? Then you must be pretty important if this huge fog formed just because you returned."

I thought about this for a moment as well and then nodded. "Yeah, that would make sense. After all, I _am _the most powerful Chain in the Abyss."

Oz was silent. I glanced over my shoulder at him to find him walking in a stiff and awkward way while staring at me. "What?" I asked.

"You…you're the most powerful Chain in the Abyss?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"But how?" He began to splutter. "You look like a teenage girl! I thought you said that the Chains were these huge monsters!"

"They are."

"Then how could you be stronger than them?"

"Because when I use my power, I obviously don't look like a teenage girl." I snorted at the mere thought. "Why would I take the form of a teenage girl while trying to defend myself against twenty-five-feet tall creatures? I'm not stupid, you know."

"What do you look like, then?"

"A rabbit."

He looked even more perplexed. "A rabbit."

"Yes. A rabbit."

"Like _that _kind of rabbit?" He pointed at the drawn cartoon bunny on my sweatshirt.

The cartoon bunny. That was falling through a hole. The cartoon bunny. That probably hopped around innocently when it wasn't finding ditches to drop into.

The idea of it made me burst out laughing. He pouted at my reaction. "Why are you laughing?" he whined.

"No…nothing…" I managed between my gasps. "Oz…I can't defeat them if I'm a tiny little thing like this!" I pointed at my own sweatshirt. "When I said 'rabbit', I meant the Chain that goes by the name of 'B-Rabbit'."

"Oh. Okay. So how is that different from a normal rabbit?"

I would have liked to show him the answer, but that probably would have scared him too much and anyway, I still didn't have enough power to transform into my true Chain form. "Well, first of all, B-Rabbit is scary."

"You're calling yourself scary."

"Because I am. If you saw my Chain form, you would understand. B-Rabbit is the size of the other Chains and fights with this awesome, shiny scythe and wears a huge, red, robe-thingy and –"

"Hold on."

"What?"

"What does the 'B' in 'B-Rabbit' stand for?"

"It stands for 'Bloody' and 'Black'. Why?"

"So technically, you're the 'Bloody Black Rabbit'."

I blinked at him while he deduced this and seemed to ponder upon it. "Yeah. It takes too long to say, though, so the other Chains somehow all decided on this one nickname that shortened it to just a 'B'. And I went along with it."

Oz slowly began to nod. "I see…" Then he looked up with another smile on his face and more flowers twirling around his hair. "I believe you, then, Alice! You must be really strong and stuff to be dubbed 'bloody'!"

Honestly, the way this kid simply accepted that I turned into a giant rabbit that wore a dress and chopped other Chains' heads off with a scythe just because I explained my name, when before he was anything but believing, really boggled my mind.

"So who was that voice?" Oz asked a few moments later.

"What voice?" I said.

"You know…that one that said all that weird stuff back at the school. The one that didn't have a body to belong to."

"Oh, you mean my –" I was about to finish when something suddenly prompted a huge rush of _that _voice into my head.

_Alice! Aaaalice! Play with me Alice! Why, Alice? Alice, don't let them do this to me! Alice, help! I'm fine, Alice. Don't look at me, Alice. Alice, I hate you! I never want to see you again, Alice!_

"Alice!"

My eyes shot back open, and I realized that Oz was staring at me with a worried look in his eyes. "Are you okay?" he asked. "You just…you seemed kind of dazed."

I quickly nodded, even though my head was spinning and I felt dizzy. The last remnants of what _that _voice said echoed across the walls of my skull. "I'm fine," I said.

I didn't get it…what was that? That string of exclamations and questions from that voice…something told me that they were memories, but I…

"If you're still traumatized over that whole capturing thing back at the school, then we should stop and rest for a while," Oz said quickly. He observed our surroundings skeptically. "Besides, it doesn't seem like we're getting anywhere. Do you have any idea where we're going?"

In truth, I was just as clueless as him. "Nope," I answered, plopping down on the black, texture-less floor. He dropped down next to me. "Um…that voice actually…that voice belongs to my sister."

Oz's eyes widened and he leaned forward at me in anticipation. "You have a sister? Really? No wonder you two have similar voices! Except she sounded kind of evil. Is she like your evil twin or something?"

"About that…I don't really know either."

His shoulders sagged. "But I thought you said that she was your sister! How could you not know this kind of thing?"

"Remember how she said that I lost all my memories?"

He paused for a moment. "Yes."

"Well…that was actually…true."

"You…you can't remember anything? At _all?_"

_Not exactly, _I thought, thinking about those phrases that popped into my head so suddenly. I glanced at him and saw that there was sympathy in his eyes. What kind of an idiot did he think I was; that I would need sympathy because I didn't' have memories? "I woke up in a part of the Abyss some time ago. I don't remember how long ago it was, because here, we don't age." Oz raised an eyebrow at this statement. "Yeah. Time flows here, but it doesn't have any effect on me or the other Chains at all. So all I really know is that I was probably around your age when I woke up here and have been that age ever since."

"So…you've been fifteen as long as you can remember?" Oz asked.

"Maybe. I could be any Earth age, really, but I might just look like a teenager." I hugged my knees to my chest. "I do believe that I come from your world, though. No other Chain here looks like I do. I think I was put here on purpose when I was however old I was as a human, and then something made me become a Chain with a human form."

He considered this. "So…technically, you are a human, then?"

I nodded. "I think so."

He nodded with me. Then he said, "If you can't remember anything, then how do you know that that voice belonged to your sister?"

"She told me afterwards."

"How did she reach you if you were in the Abyss? Is she a Chain, then, too?"

I shook my head. "No."

"Then how? Did she willingly go into the Abyss to find you?" His face lit up with an idea. "I know! She created a dimension warp between here and Earth so that she could find you and then get back to her home!"

The thought made me smile. It was so bizarre and strange that it was pretty funny. "Oz, I don't think you get it. My sister is…special."

"In what way?"

"She's not just a part of the Abyss. She _is _the Abyss."


	10. Manmade Nightmare

Oz

Her sister…_was _the Abyss?

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked. "You mean she's this dimension, as in you Chains technically live…you live _inside _of her?" The thought made my stomach turn. No way…could a different dimension exist inside of a person's body?

"Don't give me that look," Alice replied, glaring at me. "We don't live inside someone; calm down. When I said that she's the Abyss, I meant that she is basically a human manifestation of the Abyss."

I still didn't get it. My blankness must have shown on my face, because Alice sighed in exasperation. "The Chains know of her as the Will of the Abyss, because that is very technically who she is. The Abyss speaks through her, the Abyss controls the Chains through her; she _is _the Abyss. Without her, the Abyss wouldn't even exist."

Oh…so Alice's sister was like a spokesman? No…a puppet. That was more like it. "So what was the Abyss before your sister was the Will?" I asked.

Alice shrugged. "I'm guessing it didn't even exist."

"Like…this entire dimension? It didn't exist?"

She glanced at me. "I think that this dimension was manmade."

My head spun. "Manmade? But that's impossible! There isn't a genius on Earth that could possibly –"

"That's what they might want you to believe," she interrupted. "Think about it, Oz. That sister is my twin. In other words, she's the same age as me. The both of us couldn't have been here since the beginning of all existence. It just doesn't make sense. We would have had to age fifteen Earth years before coming here, which means there must have been at least some time before the Abyss existed."

She was right. She had told me that nothing aged here. She had to have been fifteen when she came here. "But how is that possible?" I questioned. "If you're right, and this place was made by humans, how could that be? The Abyss could have been here in the equivalent to hundreds of years on Earth…back then, people didn't even understand electricity. How could they create a different dimension?"

Alice crossed her legs on the ground. "It might have been an accident," she told me. "It could have been as simple as a cult summoning their evil god and creating an evil world in the process." I opened my mouth, but before I could speak, she fixed me with that glare again. "And I know what you're about to ask: if without my sister, the Abyss can't exist, then how was it able to survive before my sister became its Will?"

I slowly shut my mouth and nodded. Alice was getting good at reading my mind.

"The Abyss definitely has enough energy to sustain itself alone for quite a reasonable period of Earth time," she reasoned. "So when some people – for some rationale – wanted to find a way to keep the Abyss alive, they thought that by having a human become an eternal canister of its will, the Abyss would be able to control its crumbling power. And it worked."

"They took your sister," I said.

She shut her eyes. "I don't know why they chose her over me. Who knows? Maybe they just grabbed a random one, sacrificed her to the Abyss, and stuck the other one into the Abyss as a Chain after destroying her memories. Perhaps it was an interesting experiment?"

I could hear the venom in her voice. She hated those people she believed to be responsible much more than she hated the Abyss. She utterly despised them because they took away her memories.

"Hey, Alice?" I said, breaking through her trance.

She turned to me, her eyes still on fire. "What?"

"Um…I think that while we were unconscious after coming here…" I tugged at my collar. "I think I saw one of your memories."

The fire was instantly extinguished and she leaned forward eagerly, her eyes widened. "Really? What did you see? You have to describe everything. _Everything._"

I nervously told her about what I had seen, trying to detail the whole scene. When I finished, she was silent. I couldn't tell what she was thinking. Quietly, she sat back in her original stance. "Alice?" I asked after a few moments. "Are you okay?"

"I…I was a little girl," she said softly. "I wasn't made a monster. I was a human."

Before I could even react, tears started pouring from her eyes. I was so alarmed that I could barely even piece together something to say, and when I started I couldn't stop. "A-Alice, y-you don't have to, you know, you don't have to c-cry! I mean, we both knew that you were a human before, didn't we? A-and you were so cute and everything, and you looked so happy! There isn't a reason to cry! We should be celebrating! Yay! Yay!" I felt like I was trying to coo a one-year-old to stop wailing. In other words, I felt like an utter idiot.

I guess that was what it looked like, too, because Alice wiped away the last of her tears and laughed. "You're so stupid-looking, Oz," she told me, smiling.

My eyes were fixated on that happy look on her face. I didn't know why she didn't smile more often…it was really pretty. Barely a moment after I felt my heart skip a beat, she sneered at me again and said, "Stop staring. It's annoying."

She stood up. "Let's get going. It's good to keep moving in a place crawling with monsters."


	11. The Definition of Cute

Alice

We had been walking for a while, but we obviously couldn't tell how much time had passed. "My legs are tired," Oz complained.

I glared at him. "I thought that on Earth, men were supposed to be the tough ones."

"They _were_," he said, emphasizing the word. "But recently women have been getting a _lot_ stronger. Haven't you noticed?"

I guessed that he was referring to the fact that me, who used to be a human _girl_, could knock down every single Chain in bunny form. That was pretty impressive, even in human terms. "Well, my point is that you obviously don't have as much stamina as a teenage boy is supposed to have," I continued. "Don't you do any of those sports or whatever?"

"Not really."

"I'm surprised you're not fat."

"It's 'cause I don't eat that much anyway."

I glanced at him. "Better than not eating anything at all, I guess."

He paused for a moment as we walked onward. "Do you eat, Alice?"

I shrugged. "I can, but I don't exactly need to. It's kind of strange, really. All the other Chains have to consume the unfortunate humans that wind up here or eat other Chains…but I don't get hungry." Even though when I escaped the Abyss, I heard that being hungry was a huge issue around the world, I sort of wanted to feel that, just once. "And it might be a good thing. I didn't have any money on Earth to buy food, anyway."

"You don't get hungry?" he asked, incredulous.

"A side effect of transforming into a Chain from a human, I guess," I said, taking a random guess. "At least it didn't take away my emotions and ability to feel, right?"

Oz thought for a moment. "But you said that you _can _eat if you want, right?"

"Yeah. I stole some bread from a kid once at school. It tasted kind of weird. Do people on Earth usually put weird, melted yellow stuff between bread? And Jell-O, too. I know what it is, and that people freeze animals' blood and eat it like that, too, but how do they make it different colors? Is that normal?"

I didn't get a response, and I turned around to find Oz chuckling at me. I bristled. "What are you laughing at?" I demanded.

"Nothing," he answered, beaming. "It's just cute that you don't understand the things that every kid knows about on Earth."

Cute. That was the second time he called me that. "What does that mean?" I asked. Since he was already laughing at me, it probably wouldn't hurt to ask a few questions. After all, he grew up on Earth and should know quite a few things about it.

"What does what mean?"

"That word. 'Cute'."

He seemed a little startled at my question. "Huh?"

I crossed my arms, beginning to get impatient. "Listen, I was only on Earth for a few weeks, okay? Maybe less, I don't remember. So some of those customs and phrases and whatever don't make any sense to me. What does 'cute' mean?"

He nervously shifted his feet. I was beginning to get suspicious. "It's an insult, isn't it?" I challenged. "You think that by using words I don't know, you can insult me and get away with it."

"No!" Oz said. "It's just that…well, saying that someone is 'cute' is like telling them that they're easily lovable, I guess." His face turned red as he spoke.

I stabbed a finger at his cheek. "Why are your cheeks red?"

He took a step backwards, involuntarily. "It's the body's reaction when someone is feeling embarrassed."

I nodded. I see…at least I knew what embarrassed meant; I just didn't understand most of the human reactions to some of their emotions. Things like anger and sadness, of course I understood those. But being embarrassed was just a bit more complex. So when someone became embarrassed, it was common for them to turn red in the face… "Why are you embarrassed?" I asked.

He cleared his throat nervously. "Well, uh, usually guys tell girls that they're cute when he likes her. Of _course,_" he quickly continued, "I _definitely _don't like you. In that way."

"In what way?"

He must have thought I was kidding, because he laughed a bit. Then, when I didn't react, he stopped short. "You're…serious."

I nodded. I didn't blame him for treating me like an idiot; compared to him, my knowledge on human behavior was, at best, elementary. "Well, I guess things like love don't exactly exist here," he said.

"Love?" I thought for a moment. Periodically, my sister would tell me that she loved me. I didn't think much of it; I actually found it quite annoying without even knowing what it meant. _I want you to stay here because I loooove you!_ I shuddered before asking, "What's that?"

Oz scratched his head, probably thinking about how to explain it to me. "I guess you could consider it a special kind of emotion?" he said, questioning his own explanation. "In families, it's pretty much a standard because you're automatically close to them. Usually." So that's how it was with my sister. She was my family, so she loved me. It was unrequited. "But when it's outside of family…" He sighed. "When a boy says that he loves a girl, and the feeling is mutual, it usually means that they'll spend a lot of time together and that they care about each other. Love is a pretty strong word, and it's never used carelessly. At least, it shouldn't be."

Human behavior was indeed a lot harder than it first seemed. I pondered what Oz just told me. "What about family?" I asked.

"Family?"

"I know that my sister is blood-related," I said. "But I don't understand the concept of it. What makes us related?"

"Well, everyone has parents."

"Parents?" The word was strange to me, like it didn't belong on my tongue. "Like, mother and father?"

"Exactly. A mother and a father love each other a lot, and that's usually how families are made. They have children."

"And you said that it's automatic for members of the same family to love each other?"

"Yeah. Although in the point of view of the parents, they probably have way more love for their children then people let on. It's pretty surprising to hear what adults would do for their sons and daughters." He must have sensed that something was wrong, because then he said, "Why do you ask?"

I blinked for a moment. "If I was a human, I must have had a mother and a father too."

Oz tilted his head, not knowing what I was getting at. "That's right."

"Is it normal for parents to give away their children?"

He froze up. "Alice…"

"I'm serious," I said. Somewhere in my chest, there was an empty feeling that was throbbing right now. "Is it normal? I mean…you said that parents could go to many extents for the sake of their children. If that's the case, then why didn't my mother and father defend my sister and I? They must have known when we were taken away. But they didn't do anything."

I stared at my boots, thinking. Was this something to be sad over? I didn't even know…it wasn't like I knew a family to miss. Except for my psychopath sister.

I felt Oz ruffle my hair, a motion that would have made me practically bite him if it didn't surprise me so much. He then showed me that eye smile of his and with his hand still on my head, said, "I'm kind of glad that they did let you go."

I looked at him in question, but didn't even get a chance to ask before he continued. "Because if they didn't, I never would have met you. Right?"

I was silent for a moment. For some reason, I found myself relishing the warmth of his palm that flowed to the roots of my hair. "Yeah…"

The word barely made it from my mouth before the Abyss came crashing down around us.


	12. Dagger of Contracts

Oz

The ground shook and shuddered. It was just like what had happened at the school, only a lot more broken and rough. The shaking paused for a moment…and then started up again. Rinse and repeat. "What's going on?" I demanded, the vibrations traveling through my skin.

Alice scowled. "It looks like my sister has found us."

"Found us?" I nearly tumbled over as a ripple of a huge ground wave unbalanced me. "What do you mean?"

"When you latched onto me and came to the Abyss with me, it must have created a disruption in my sister's teleportation. So instead of being sent to where she wanted us, we wound up some random place, and she would have to search for us to know where we were. It looks like we've been located."

The mist cleared, revealing nothing but more dark walls. Well, that, and a giant…a giant baby-spider morph that I assumed to be an example of a Chain. It was basically a huge baby's head, the kind you see on dolls, with these glassy, cracked blue eyes. Spider's legs sprouted from holes on the sides of the head. That was what had been causing the shaking: the mere steps that the Chain took would cause a mini-earthquake.

"_That's _your sister?" I said, incredulous. "I thought you said she wasn't a Chain."

Alice slapped the back of my head, and it hurt surprisingly much. I guess I had been more of an idiot than usual. "That's not my sister!" she snapped. "That's one of her Chain minions!"

"_That's right," _the voice suddenly said. "_I can't show my face to a lowlife such as you, contractor."_

Lowlife? _Lowlife? _How dare she call me a lowlife when she went around dragging innocent bunny-rabbits/teenage girls into a monster-infested prison? "He's not my contractor," Alice said.

"_Oh, really? No wonder you weren't able to stay on Earth, then, Alice._" The voice giggled, and I tensed at the sound of it. "_It's a good thing I found you so quickly. Now you can come back to me!_"

"Fat chance," Alice muttered. "This stupid Chain is one of the lowest of the low."

"_But still strong enough to defeat a powerless you!_"

On that mark, the Chain charged forward, or rather, simply lifted one of its hairy legs and stabbed it down at us. I barely dodged it, landing on the floor and having debris rain down on me, before I was completely impaled. This thing was serious! It wanted to kill us!

"You going to change your mind about that blood-drinking thing?" Alice asked as she nimbly leapt away each time the Chain tried to stab her. This must be A Day in the Life of Alice.

Huh? Oh. She was referring to the fact that I refused to form a contract by refusing to drink her blood. "Why is that important?" I shouted as the spider missed Alice again, its leg getting lodged in the ground.

"Because right now, I don't have enough power to transform into B-Rabbit and kick this guy's arse, that's what!" she snapped. "I'll only get enough energy if you form a contract with me!"

I would feel stupid about it later, but I still didn't like the idea of drinking her blood. I was about to refuse when the Chain opened up its mouth, toothless, and from somewhere within that huge gap shot out a string of spider silk. Yep. This place was definitely extremely bizarre.

The thick strands of silk snapped like a whip and curled up around Alice, binding her arms tightly against her body. She became extremely outraged, kicking her legs uselessly. "You stupid little Chain!" she hollered, being lifted up into the air.

"_Good job!_" Alice's sister's disembodied voice laughed. "_Now, Alice, who's the lowest of the low? Squeeze the life out of her._"

The string visibly tightened. "What happened to – spending – more time together –?" She struggled to breathe through the constriction of that scary spider stuff.

"_Not literally kill you. I don't hate my sister enough to do that. But enough so that you'll pass out and I can take care of your contractor!_"

Whoa, whoa, whoa. This was _not _agreed to. I was going to die here? In an alternate dimension? No one would ever know what had happened to me!

"Oz, run!" Alice choked out. "Get as far away from here as you can!"

My heart pounded extremely loud within my ears. "What about you?"

She still managed to glare at me, even though that determined flash in her eyes was flickering. "What else? I'll obviously just – stay here."

Stay here? Honestly? "_That's right, contractor, run,_" the voice said. "_A little exercise would be good for my Chain here. Go ahead!_"

Okay, well, that just ticked me off. I didn't care in what way this person was related to Alice, she was seriously pissing me off. What kind of authority did she believe that she had? And sure, she was the Will of the Abyss, and all, but she was toying with Alice and I like we were game pieces.

Every single teenage hormone in my body acted up. When you tell someone my age to do something in that kind of _annoying _voice, every single cell in my body will try and do the exact opposite. It is a proven scientific fact.

So of course when she told me to run, I stepped up and said, "Alice! I'll form a contract you!"

Which would have been all epic and everything, except Alice glared at me again and said, "You idiot! You can't – form a contract with another human! You have to – use my full Chain name!"

Oh. Well, if I had known that _earlier, _maybe we wouldn't be having this issue. "_Stop that child's mouth before he can do it!_" Alice's sister hollered.

But I hoped she realized that my mouth moved a lot faster than that awkward spider-doll did. _Take two, _I thought. "Let's form a contract, Bloody Black Rabbit!"

And just like that, the darkness around us vanished to pure white. The change created a glare in my eyes, and I had to squint against it. The Chain was gone, and all presence of that voice was gone, too. Alice rubbed her arms, irritated. "Made up your mind?" she asked, inhaling strongly. "You're not going to chicken out again, are you?"

"No," I said firmly, although I seriously felt that this whole contract thing held a lot more weight than it did before. "So, what are you going to do?"

She whipped out a dagger from behind her back. I leaped backward in alarm as I spotted it. It was a dagger with a shining silver blade that was curved along one side until it met the straight edge at a point. The hilt was a glimmering gold, embedded with crystal crumbs of diamond, sapphire, ruby, and emerald. "What the heck is that?" I demanded. "Where did that come from?"

"The Dagger of Contracts," Alice said simply. "It appears with the Chain whenever someone agrees to form a contract with it."

My heart slammed into my throat. "So you're going to cut yourself…with that?"

She nodded like it was no big deal. "And then you will catch my blood with your hands and drink it." Then she glared at me. "I swear, if a single drop of my blood is wasted because you weren't fast enough to catch it, I will _beat you up _when we get back to Earth. Got it?"

I quickly nodded in agreement. I found it pretty Alice-like that she would be picky about that kind of thing when both of our lives were at stake. She grabbed the dagger like she was preparing to stab someone and rolled up her sleeve. "Won't it hurt?" I asked.

She glanced at me coolly. "To a Chain, pain doesn't mean anything."

And then she drew the tip of the blade along her smooth skin, wincing. Even I flinched at the sight of the red blood welling to the surface of the cut. I held out a cupped hand and nearly ran off screaming when a few drops hit my skin. The slow dripping finally ceased, leaving only a tiny pool in my palm, thank goodness. "Hold your nose," she suggested, tossing away the dagger carelessly so that it clattered to the ground soundlessly. She covered up her cut with the sleeve of her sweatshirt. "I don't want you telling me that my blood tastes funny."

I was glad to oblige, holding my nose with my other hand and shutting my eyes while draining the blood into my mouth. _It's artificially dyed water, _I told myself. _That's why you're holding your nose. You just don't want to taste the artificial stuff. _

Only Chain blood must have 300% potency or something, because that steel taste of blood just seeped right through my attempts to block it. Instinctively, my body gagged, and that was when Alice took action.

"Don't you dare spit out my precious blood!" she snapped, rushing forward. She then proceeded to slam me so hard on the back with one arm that instead of spitting it out, I swallowed it.

And promptly fainted.


	13. Meat

Alice

As soon as Oz swallowed my…_blood,_ he collapsed. It was probably because of the shock of drinking somebody's red blood cells. As much as I wanted to empathize for him, I couldn't. Because I never felt so energized in my life. I didn't understand how just by finding a kid to be my contractor, it could give me power, but I didn't care, either.

A partly evil smile formed my lips as B-Rabbit broke out from her bindings. I couldn't help but laugh gleefully as I transformed, relishing the feel of that wonderfully sharp scythe in my dark palm. Never in the existence that I could remember had I felt this wonderful. Strength flowed through my limbs and surrounded me entirely in humid waves. "I will _always _be the most powerful Chain," I shouted, scooping up the now tiny, unconscious Oz into rabbit arm that wasn't clutching the eerie black weapon.

The white room disappeared, and I spotted the measly Chain watching me. To think, _this _inferior excuse for a Chain nearly squeezed all the breath from me. "Die," I said before swinging the scythe down upon its head. My sister screamed in dismay as the Chain crumpled, a huge gash along its doll head.

It felt good to have my power back again, and it wasn't that stupid excuse for energy like it had been before, either – actual, _pure _energy filled my bones and my veins, and I had no doubts that it could be even easier to take down all the Chains in the Abyss if I had to.

No more wasting time. I had already thrown away too much. "Let's go to Earth, Oz!" I exclaimed.

And with a slash of the scythe, away we were.

The two of us landed – both as humans – in an abandoned alley within the city. Oz wasn't awake, but I was. I was _totally _awake. I glanced around, taking in the dirty walls and the scurrying rats around my feet. I breathed in the stench of garbage, that beautiful stench. I wasn't dreaming…I was really here!

I was out of the Abyss.

Happiness welled up inside, an emotion that I had never felt on this level before. I grabbed Oz and shook him. "Oz! Wake up! We're home! We're back home!" _Home…_

He slowly roused. "…Huh?"

As soon as he was awake, I let go of him, making him nearly fall over. "This is Earth, isn't it?" I said excitedly. "It is…look!" I pointed upwards, where I could clearly see a snippet of the blue sky that could only be part of Earth. "We're not in the Abyss anymore!"

Oz stood up behind me. "Looks like it…and I have to admit, the Abyss was a pretty depressing place."

I glanced at him and found him smiling again. It wasn't nearly as annoying to see him that happy as before, when I was panicking because I had little to no time left. Well...and the fact that yes, I was practically flying so I couldn't care less about annoying things right then. "Hey, Oz," I said.

"Yeah?"

"Can I ask something of you?"

He beamed. "Of course, Alice! After all, we're friends now, aren't we?"

Friends…that's right. That was my side of the agreement. "Well…" I kicked a stray pebble out of the alley, where people were walking past. "Could you teach me about…people?"

"People? Like what?"

"Like in the Abyss, when you told me that stuff about family and all. Could you teach me more of that kind of stuff?"

He watched me carefully as I shifted my feet. "I mean," I said, "I barely know anything, and if I'm going to live here from now on, I'd need some help with –"

Before I could even finish, Oz came up behind me and wrapped an elbow around my neck. "Of course!" he said happily while I struggled, trying to loosen his grip. Man, compared to my Chain form, being a human was equivalent to being _weak._ "You can ask me anything about humans, Alice, and I'd be glad to help you!"

I didn't understand why humans did this. As in, nearly choke their friends to death. But I suppose that if Oz did it, and if a bunch of other people I saw at school did it, too, it was humanlike. _Remember that, _I thought to myself. I would need to blend in and become as much human as I possibly could.

That was when I caught a whiff of something over the garbage smell. I sniffed the air again. It smelled good… "Hey, Oz, what's that smell?" I asked, pointing eagerly towards the opening of the alley.

Oz released me and smelled the air. "It seems like…food."

Food? Food could smell like that and make a Chain who didn't eat anything feel hungry? "I want some!" I decided, and charged off, following the smell and leaving Oz to chase after me.

There were huge buildings that were really tall on both sides of where I was standing on a cobblestone street between them. There were people behind stands, giving all sorts of things to adults and children alike in exchange for some kind of paper. "Hey, Oz," I said as he caught up to me, "what's that paper those people are giving that that person behind the counter?"

"Oh, that's called money," Oz told me. "It's kind of like trading, but it makes buying things easier since it's easy to set a price."

"So…we buy stuff with that money, and then the people who get it from us use it again to buy other stuff?"

"That's pretty much how it works, yeah."

I nodded slowly. It made a little sense, at least. Now, to follow that delicious smell. It was somewhere around here…

I set my eyes on a stand where a rather large man was selling some chunks of meat on thin wooden sticks. I didn't remember the meat from the school lunchroom smelling this good, and instantly became suspicious about what the creepy cafeteria ladies were _actually _dumping on those yellow lunch trays. I was just about to reach out and grab one of the meat-sticks when I remembered: Earth people used money. I turned to Oz. "Hey, do you have money?" I asked.

He blinked and reached into a pocket, fumbling out a few of those paper bill things. "You want one?" he asked, pointing to the meat.

I nodded eagerly. He passed off some money to the man and then picked up one of the meat-sticks to me. "It's called a kabob," he informed me as we walked along and as I inspected the food. "People use the sticks to make it simpler to eat meat and fruit and stuff."

I bit some of the meat off, and the taste was heavenly. It was indescribably beautiful...compared to what, I don't know, since I haven't eaten much except that bread or whatever. Hmm...I should have stolen some of this instead of that bread before, at the school.

Happily, I munched on the food as Oz and I walked down the street. Earth was a lot better than I first thought.


	14. 2030

Oz

"So where do you live, Alice?"

I asked her the question as she continuously munched on some of the popcorn chicken out of a box. I bought it for her out of my own pocket, since she probably still didn't understand the concept of money, let alone have some. She really loved meat, I could tell you that. As we were walking out of the city market, she finished one type of meat after another. Luckily my pocket money is worth a poor man's fortune.

Now we were walking along town, where I discovered that we were in the correct neighborhood of my house. That was good. I had been nervous that when we escaped, we had been deposited on a random location on Earth. It seems we were extremely close to home.

"When I first came here," she said between chewing, "I found an abandoned house."

"You lived in an abandoned house?" I asked, alarmed. "Alone?"

Alice nodded as if this was nothing. "It was pretty cozy, really."

Abandoned house? Like the kind where people claim to see ghosts roaming around, seeking revenge? I swallowed at the thought of having to live in a ghost mansion. She wouldn't be allowed to live in that kind of house, not while I was around. "You live in my house from now on," I announced.

Uninterested, she popped another piece of chicken into her mouth. "Is it small?"

Just drop a ten-ton weight on my head; why not? Only Alice could do that. I let out a laugh, remembering how she wasn't paying attention in class so she wouldn't even have a clue as to who I was as a part of society. "No, my family is actually rich. So the house is actually a mansion."

She glanced over at me. "Your family is rich?"

I nodded. She reached into the chicken box, found it was empty, and tossed it out into a garbage can while muttering incoherent insults. "Does that mean that you can buy me lots of that chicken?" she asked as we walked.

Wow. Major personality change here. I expected her to just scowl at me, but she had this curious look on her face. I guess eating lots of that popcorn chicken could cause a person's mindset to change. "Well…_I'm _not that rich. My father makes most of the money."

Alice nodded. "Hmm…so people work to earn money to buy things…then where did you get that money to pay those people back in the city?"

"My dad periodically gives me money to spend for my own use."

"Really? He just gives it to you?" She thought for a moment. "Could I get some too?"

Eh…well, about that… "We'll see," I said, not wanting to get back on her bad side.

It wasn't long before we arrived at the gates of my house. We slipped inside using the key I had for the locked gates, and proceeded to walk up towards the doors.

I decided to knock this time and not use the key, so that my dad would know I was home. It looked late enough that I should have gone back home from my first day of school. Wow. First day of school. A lot had happened in this one day.

The door opened a crack, and some guy I didn't recognize stood behind it. "_Yees_?" he asked.

"Um…" I said, not quite sure what to say to this stranger. "This is my house…"

He looked me over. "I do not recall a short blond kid living in my house with me."

Alarm bells rang in my head. What was he talking about? "_Your_ house?" I said. "That's not possible. This property belongs to the Vessalius family."

"Vessalius family?" he answered. Then he began to laugh, wholeheartedly. "Oh, child…do you happen to be Oz Vessalius?"

How did he know who I was? "That's me," I answered.

Then the one gray eye I could see flickered over to Alice. "And who's this little girl?"

Apparently, the chicken high had worn off, because that attitude of hers was back. "I'm Alice," she snapped, standing straight and tall. "Now let us in."

He muttered something that sounded a lot like "interesting", but swung the door open wide and moved aside to let us in. Now, I could fully see him.

The man wore a nice suit and a top hat along with it, for reasons I didn't understand. He had hair that looked artificially gray and that covered his left eye. On his shoulder sat some kind of miniature rag doll or something. "I am Xerxes Break," he told us. "Pleased to meet you, Oz Vessalius." Then he smiled. "And Alice."

I glanced around the house, my heart pounding. Something was wrong. This didn't look like my house as I had left it this morning. The tiled floor changed to a deep, rich red carpet. There were now vases of plants lining the walls. My father didn't allow plants inside the house. "What's going on?" I demanded, whirling towards "Xerxes Break". "Why does my house look like this? And where's my father?"

"Slow with the questions," he said. "Oz, I wasn't lying when I said that this was my house. If you don't believe me, I can show you the deed papers."

Impossible. He was definitely lying. "My father owned this house less than twenty-four hours ago!" I said.

"Did he now?" Alice glanced from me to Break in confusion as he spoke. "That's funny. Because this house has been under my name for the past eight years."

Eight years? No way…

"Xerxes, who was at the door?" a feminine voice called, and I turned to see yet another person I didn't recognize bound down the stairs. She looked younger than me and she skipped down the stairs wearing a nice dress and purple ribbons in her pale hair.

"This is Sharon," Break said. "Sharon, this boy is…Oz Vessalius."

Something exchanged between the two of them in that glance. "Oh. Really?" Sharon said. She then faced me with a gentle smile. "Hello, Oz. My name is Sharon Rainsworth. Have you heard of my family?"

Of course I did. The Rainsworth family was one of my father's allies in the hotel business. "I'm Oz," I introduced myself, "and this is Alice." Alice sidled closer to me, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"I thought you said this was your house," she hissed towards me.

"It _is _my house," I whispered back.

"Oz, what is today's date?" Sharon suddenly asked, taking out a cell phone.

"It's September twentieth," I said. I thought about the day's events, how the weather had been so spring-like even though it was the transition into fall from summer, so I thought it had been a nice day. And then that freak storm had formed from the Abyss and got me into a huge mess of Chains and mystery. What a day. "Why?"

She showed me the screen on her cell phone. The date at the top read: _August 21__st__. _My blood ran cold. No possible way…

"I'm afraid it's been a very long time since you owned this house, Oz," Sharon said regretfully, shutting her cell phone. "You see, the Vessalius family –"

"No way," I muttered. "How…?"

"The time difference," Alice whispered, and I realized she was right. The two of us had gone to the Abyss and come back not even remembering how time could have erratically changed on Earth.

"Yes, the time difference," Break said, as if he knew exactly what we were talking about. "The date of today is August twenty-first, year two-thousand-thirty."

My mind whirled. 2030? _2030?_ When I woke up this morning, my clock read "2020". "We were gone for…ten years?"


	15. Seals

Alice

Oz and I sat at the table across from Break and Sharon. I didn't understand what was going on myself, but according to Oz, it had been nearly ten years since the day we were taken to the Abyss.

Everyone in that school had aged ten years. That teacher could be dead.

It didn't impact me as much as it did Oz, of course, because I didn't really have a life here that would be moving on without me. Heck, I didn't exactly have a life going on anywhere I went. Ten years, one hundred years, one thousand years; to me, it didn't make a difference whatsoever. But by the despairing look on Oz's face, I could guess it was pret-ty bad.

"The Vessalius family sold this house to us eight years ago," Break told us, "which was two years after your mysterious disappearance. Your father seemed distressed, Oz. Didn't you announce to him that you were leaving at all?"

Of course he hadn't. He was at school with me, and then he saved me by not thinking and coming with me. Now, Oz sat silent next to me. He didn't answer.

"Let me guess," Break continued. "You two went to the Abyss together."

My head snapped up. How did he know about the Abyss? This guy was getting more and more unnerving. "Allow us to introduce ourselves formally," Break said. "Sharon Rainsworth and I, Xerxes Break, are a part of an organization called Pandora. We are working to destroy the Abyss."

I got to my feet, the chair screeching as I stood. "Who the heck are you?" I demanded. "How did you hear about the Abyss? What kind of information do you have stored in that head of yours?"

"Calm down, Alice," he told me, unfazed. "Or should I say…B-Rabbit?"

Thunder boomed within my head, and I plopped back into my seat. A human…a human other than my contractor knew about my secret identity. Break chuckled. "Sorry to startle you like that," he said, "but certain extents must be taken to make you both listen to us. We know all about the Abyss, especially about you, B-Rabbit. The most powerful Chain in the Abyss would not be able to dodge our radar."

They knew who I was…they knew _what _I was…but how? I never heard of them in the time I could remember, but they claimed to know everything about where I came from. I felt pinpricks along my skin. How could they be monitoring me? "The Abyss is a warped place," Sharon said, placing some tea in front of Oz and I. "It's amazing that you two were even able to make it back out."

"What happened…in the last ten years?" Oz asked, shaken. "Do you know where my father went?"

"Well, for us two," Break said, "we purchased this mansion on behalf of Pandora. It's a rather nice spot, and since it was also the home of a child who mysteriously disappeared…that had some part of the purchase, too. We already suspected that you, a filial child, had disappeared because of the Abyss since you didn't even inform your father in any way. As for him, I believe he went to America. But that was eight years ago. He could be anywhere now. Look it up on the internet; I'm sure you'll find his location."

They couldn't possibly know everything about me. I flicked my eyes from Break to Sharon, and then to Break again. I bet they didn't know that Oz was my contractor. Otherwise, they would have mentioned it already. I felt a flickering moment of triumph.

"As for you two," Break said, "I believe you have some explaining to do about that contract of yours."

I wanted to rip him to shreds with my scythe so badly. There were no secrets being kept from these two!

"As members of Pandora, we obviously know everything about contracts that there is to know. Or most everything. So B-Rabbit –"

"Don't call me that or I'll be tempted to transform and murder you," I snarled.

He laughed, which just made me even angrier. He didn't think I was serious! "Excuse me, _Alice. _Sharon and I know that you wouldn't be able to escape the Abyss like that without getting a contractor, and since you came here with Oz, it's quite obvious that he is your contractor. That type of contract you made is…_illegal._"

"Since when?" I demanded. "There isn't a law against that kind of –"

"In Pandora, there is a law that states any contract that involves the drinking of a Chain's blood is illegal. In other words, you two have just broken the law."

This guy was seriously ticking me off. "I don't believe that we have to listen to _anything _that members of some stupid organization tells us. Besides, how will you arrest us if a majority of the world doesn't even know of what the Abyss is, along with the police and everything?" I crossed my arms. "They'll think you're some kind of psychopath that kidnapped two innocent children to send them to jail."

"Pandora holds authority over Chains that set foot on Earth," Break told me calmly. "When you break the law, it doesn't mean that we will lock you up, it means that we will use ways to send you all the way back to the Abyss. Before your contract ends."

I bristled, not liking the way he was saying that. "What do you mean by 'before your contract ends'? This contract lasts the lifetime of the contractor – or the Chain, doesn't it?"

"In a way, yes," Sharon said, watching Oz as he sat silently listening. "But in illegal contracts, a seal appears on the contractor's chest."

As soon as she said 'seal', I thought of the one that was on my wrist. A quick glance confirmed that it was still there, completed. I glared at it for a moment. It was a mark that, no doubt, my sister had transferred to me after I escaped. It meant she was still keeping tabs on me, no matter where I was. "What does that mean?"

"The seal is in the rough shape of a clock," Sharon continued. "It appears at the beginning of the contract. Before long a hand of a clock will appear as well, and once it completes a single revolution, both the contractor and its Chain will be sent to the lowest depth of the Abyss. It is impossible to return from there. So yes, the contract does last for quite a while."

I clenched my fists. That couldn't be true. If that happened, it would be on the same level as dying. There was no way that I would banish both Oz and myself to that kind of punishment. "Most Chains and contractors don't know of this until way after the contract begins," Break told me. "So if you didn't know, I wouldn't be surprised."

"It's been investigated," Sharon said, "that if the Chain uses power more frequently, the hand on the seal will move quicker. So if you want to stay on Earth, I highly suggest that you refrain from using your power for unnecessary things. Such as murdering Xerxes."

I could feel the anger rising in me. What kind of a thing had I done? If these two were right, and a seal would appear on Oz's chest, then the two of us would suffer for eternity. Not just me, but him too?

What had I done?


	16. The Seaweed Feathered Raven

Hey everyone~ This is a short author's note. A majority of you reviewers (thank you!) have been requesting more AliceXOz moments. Trust me, I want to, but I need these other characters to make an appearance so the plot can continue smoothly. Did I say this before? I forget. Oh well. Just breathe, people! Those moments will arrive soon enough.

Oz

25 years old…that's how old I should be.

"You mean twenty-four," Break corrected me as I thought this out loud. "Your birthday is in September, isn't it? Right now it's August. Your twenty-fifth wouldn't have passed yet."

Right now wasn't exactly the time to act all smart on me. Apparently Alice agreed with my opinion, because she snorted and said, "What kind of a stalker are you, figuring out people's birthdays like that?"

"I'm sure, Alice, that you'd like to know your birthday, wouldn't you?"

She scowled at him. "Not really. If I found out that I was over a thousand years old chronologically, I'm pretty sure I would have rather not known."

Break smirked at this comment. Or something that looked like a smirk, but didn't have that annoying attitude with it. His carefree attitude was annoying in itself, and I don't think anything could have been more irritating than that. Even if I was considered optimistic, there was no way I could tell someone that they had missed out ten years of their life with that kind of straight face. "No worries, Alice. We don't know your birthday, anyway. We don't dig into the past of Chains like you, who appear human and therefore might have a human past."

"Good!" Alice snapped, her eyes flashing dangerously. "I don't want you people stalking me, anyways!"

How? How had so much time passed? I knew that the Abyss warped time…but I didn't even expect that it could do so on such a scale.

And my father. Where was my father?

"It's rather interesting, though, that such a powerful Chain has emerged from the Abyss," Break commented lightheartedly. "I must say, as much as it is my job to send you back home, you two would be a brilliant asset to Pandora."

Alice raised an eyebrow at this. "I thought that you Pandora people were against Abyss-related things no matter what."

"Oh, the rest of Pandora is. I can almost guarantee it." Break cracked another smile. "But I'm special. And you two are special, too."

I had never despised anyone as much as I did him.

"The job of Pandora is to keep things of the Abyss in the Abyss," he continued. "So for that purpose, we have our own weapons – Chains."

"The irony," I muttered.

"Exactly!" he exclaimed, hearing me. Both Alice and I jumped in our seats. "The _irony _is what makes our job so much fun! Ahem. Anyways. Our contracts are different from yours, because ours, for one, aren't illegal." He reached to a chain dangling from his neck and pulled out a heavy-looking charm from underneath his collar that was hanging on the end of the chain. It was a deep red color that looked like it had a liquid consistency...only it was frozen to the metal back. "We dip this into the blood of the Chain and that forms a contract. And luckily, we won't wind up in the Abyss like Oz here will."

Beside me, Alice cringed. She probably didn't like the idea of us getting sent back to that nightmare dimension. But to me, the whole thing seemed a little bizarre. I mean, it was just too strange when people told you that you were sure to be banished from your world in a certain amount of time because of a tattoo on your chest.

Sharon kicked me underneath the table. I think she was trying to hit Break for simply telling me I was good as dead, but she totally misjudged the angle at which she was sitting and got me in the shin instead. And she was weak. How embarrassing. "So what exactly are you planning to do with us?" I asked.

"We want to use you to help us with our jobs," he said instantly.

"Help you?" Alice said. She grimaced. "Why would we do something stupid like that?"

"It's not stupid."

We all glanced toward the new voice at the doorway. A tall man stood there, with jet black hair that was slightly wavy and pale eyes. He wore a trench coat, even though it was indoors. He slowly looked me over, and then at Alice. I shifted underneath his gaze, but he stared as if I was an interesting specimen of some kind of alien.

"Oh, if it isn't Raven!" Break exclaimed happily. "Come, join us."

"This is Raven," Sharon said, a lot calmer compared to her associate. "His real name is Gilbert, or Gil. He's a part of the Nightray family."

"Why do you call him Raven, then?" Alice asked critically, her eyes narrowed. "Is it because of his hair? Because then, his name should be 'Seaweed'."

Gil glared at her. "Shut up, little girl. I heard you turned into a rabbit. What kind of a Chain looks like a rabbit?"

I winced. Oh, boy. I could just tell how Alice would react to this. Her eyes widened in outrage. "The most _powerful one_, that's what kind! And don't call me a little girl; I could be hundreds of years your senior!" she shouted. Then she crossed her arms. "Of course, you wouldn't understand. Your brain is probably just as seaweed-y as your hair."

Calm as Gil looked when he first entered the room, he was all fired up now. He must have a short temper. "My hair doesn't look _remotely _like seaweed!" he defended himself loudly. "And also, seaweed is a good source of minerals and is a popular ingredient in Japanese cuisine, so I wouldn't go around insulting it so easily!"

"Calm down," Break intervened. "No need to argue between co-workers."

Alice yelled, "I never agreed to work with you!" at the same time Gil said, "I will _never _work with her."

The two of them glared at each other again. The tension in the room was making me extremely uneasy, so I reached out and poked Alice. "What?" she snapped at me.

"If you be quiet, I'll buy you some chicken later," I said, and she fell silent. Whew. There went the scary atmosphere. And another good thing about the arguing ending was that I wanted to hear about these Pandora people and in as little time as possible.

"Gil is called Raven because of his Chain," Break told us. "His Chain's name is Raven. And it's a catchy name."

"So you're all contractors?" I asked for clarification.

Break nodded, sipping some tea. "None of us are illegal contractors, of course. How vile, drinking a Chain's blood."

Alice leaped to her feet, outraged. _Again. _"I'll have you know that my blood is some of the most precious Chain blood there is!" she hollered, totally forgetting about her agreement with me about thirty seconds after she complied to it.

Break shrugged. "Chain's blood is still Chain's blood."

"Without it you wouldn't be able to form contracts, either," I pointed out, and I felt like I said something very smart, because Alice huffed in agreement and sat back down.

"Very good," Break told me, a hint of a smile at his lips. "I didn't think you would be paying attention. It seems you're rather interested in this Pandora work of ours. If you join, I'm sure your Chain will agree to as well."

You would have thought that Break had learned by now not to say things like that. Alice bristled beside me. "I'm not a dog or something!" she snapped. "Also, if anything, Oz is my contractor and therefore he is my manservant!" Huh? What? "I won't follow him just because he tells me to."

"Then tell me, you Chain, what do you plan on doing on Earth?" Break asked coolly. "Live here forever? That's not possible. Once that seal on Oz's chest goes around, you'll be banished for the rest of the Abyss's existence. You might as well do something useful with your hourglass time."

Alice remained silent. "It used to be that I just wanted to live here," she said after a moment, "but as you just mentioned, that would be impossible after some time." She looked up, probably the first time she had been calm and serious since setting foot in the house.

"While I'm here, I want to find my memories."


	17. Deal

Pikachika23: *cries in corner*

Oz: Pika-chan, what's wrong?

Pikachika23: *sniffle* I just put up a new chapter 24 hours ago and only one person submitted a review! I must be so awful at writing if the readers don't even want to comment! WAAAAAH!

Alice: What's going on here?

Oz: Pika-chan is sad because she didn't receive reviews.

Alice: WHAT? Hey you. Yeah, that's right, I'm talking to YOU, reader. I saw all of your reviews asking Pika-san to update, and now you don't even bother commenting when she even stopped her procrastination to write a new chapter for you? HOW DARE YOU! You want me to change to B-Rabbit and pull my scythe on you? HUH?

Oz: Alice...don't scare them away...

Alice: PIKA-SAN TOILS OVER THIS FANFICTION NEARLY EVERY SINGLE DAY! Do you see the issue here, Oz? If this story doesn't get reviews, then Pika-san won't get motivated to update. And if she isn't motivated to update, then our story won't continue.

Oz: Wait...does that mean we'll never get a hug scene?

Alice: Yep.

Oz: Does that mean we'll never get a date scene?

Alice: Exactly.

Oz: DOES THAT MEAN WE'LL NEVER GET A KISS SCENE?

Alice: Bingo.

Oz: OH NO! THAT IS AWFUL! READERS, HURRY AND REVIEW OTHERWISE PIKA-CHAN WILL STRAND US HERE AT THIS POINT IN THE STORY!

Random narrator: That's right, readers. If Pikachika23 doesn't receive reviews, she will become very sad. And that's bad for all of us. So please review before she becomes depressed and begins to feel useless.

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><p>Alice<p>

Break, as expected, found my statement perfectly amusing. He chuckled for a moment. "I see…" he said. "Well, if that's what you'd like to do, then we can certainly be of help to you in some ways. See, Sharon? I told you."

I glanced between the two. "Told her what?"

Break smiled at me. In more ways than one, his smile was a lot more annoying than Oz's. I wanted to punch him. "That you'd want to get your memories back."

I could feel myself stiffen. "How would you know that?" I stabbed a finger at him. "I knew it! You _are_ a Chain stalker!"

He shrugged, as if it weren't a big deal. "Our Chains like keeping tabs on you. After all, as you yourself said, you're the most powerful Chain in the Abyss. So when you were crying to Oz about how you were so happy to have previously been a human, I believed that you would want even more to have your memories back."

This little – "Don't you dare talk as if you knew everything about me!" I hollered, resisting the urge to stand up and kick his face in. "And tell your Chains to keep to themselves before I destroy them!" My face reddened as my own mind remembered how I had cried after Oz told me about the scene from when I was little. I _cried._

Break ignored me entirely, which made me even angrier. "You proved that you didn't have any memories yourself," he said, "when you admitted just a few minutes ago that you didn't know your own age." I was about to protest when he continued. "That was about five years ago when I heard about you listening to your first memory," he said, thinking. "And from that time until now, I formed a theory for you, Alice: you can find your memories from defeated Chains."

I narrowed my eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm saying that if you help us banish Chains back to the Abyss, then you may be able to find your memories, too. It's a win-win situation."

Not really. I didn't want to do their dirty work. But then again, if it involved my memories..."And how did you develop that _theory_?" I asked.

"Oz said that he saw the memory while being transported to the Abyss. You've been in that place for who-knows-how-much-Abyss-time, and haven't found any of your memories. Which leads me to think that your memories are bridged between Earth and the Abyss. So if you defeat the Chains here, you should be able to find some of your memories."

Gee, this guy was smarter than he let on. It actually made some sense. Since Chains here on Earth were originally from the Abyss, then they were like "bridges", just like the portal in which Oz saw my memory. I glanced over at Sharon, who was drinking her tea. ...Maybe Break just leeched the idea from her and claimed it as his own. I wouldn't be surprised. I turned to Oz. "Hey, Oz, what do you think?" I asked.

He glanced at me in surprise. "You're asking for my opinion?"

I nodded. "You helped me get to Earth, so I should at least ask you this."

He thought for a moment, staring at his shoes beneath the table. "I guess it's a good idea," he muttered. "But _I _want something in return for helping you, too." He glanced at the three Pandora workers in turn.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Gil asked.

Oz smiled for a moment, and these weak, drooping pink flowers hung beside his head. Wow…he must be pretty out of it after hearing all this news for those imaginary flowers to look so sad… "Alice is getting her memories, right? And you guys are getting less work, in a way. At this rate, I should get something too."

Break laughed, as if hearing something extraordinarily hilarious. I glared at him. This guy was messed up in the head. "Go ahead," he said, wiping tears from his eyes. "What do you have in mind, Oz?"

"In return for helping you, I want you to find the whereabouts of my father."

Sharon heard this and tweaked the ribbon in her hair. "Oz, that would be rather difficult," she said. "There's no guarantee that he'll believe you're alive and come to you. After all, he didn't even know ten years ago what happened. He might have lost hope."

Oz leaned forward in his chair. "Oh. Is that how it is? Then I guess Alice and I will find another way to get back her memories – without you."

Even I was alarmed. Oz wasn't exactly the type to threaten and-slash-or manipulate people like this. Break smiled at the comment. "Alright," he said. "We can do that for you."

Sharon and Gil glanced over at him in surprise. "How?" Gil challenged. "His father isn't even in Japan. And he's constantly traveling."

Break shrugged. "There are people in Pandora that are sure to be able to contact him. If he doesn't believe his son is alive, then we'll just send Oz and Alice across seas to see him. And have them find Chains there, too. We won't let a single Chain escape our radar."

I glared at him. On the surface was a calm smile, but beneath was a scary stalker bent on world domination.

"Then it's settled," Break said. "We have agreed to work together. I'll inform Pandora to have them work on that favor we promised."

"Another thing," Oz said.

"What?"

"We're getting paid, right?"


	18. Alice vs Sink

Pikachika23: *cries in corner*

Alice: What's wrong with her this time?

Oz: Yeah, Pika-chan. What's wrong? A bunch of people reviewed your last chapter. I thought you would be happy.

Pikachika23: I-I am so-so-so-so -

Alice: Okay...Pika-san can't even talk. This must be pretty serious. Hey you. Yeah, you, reader. DID YOU SAY SOMETHING INSULTING TO PIKA-SAN? How dare you! Even though you knew how discouraged she was! That's it, Imma sharpen my scythe and -

Oz: Alice, stop! We don't even know if it was because of them. Pika-chan, can you tell us what happened?

Pikachika23: *sniffle* ...I AM SO HAPPY! YOU HAVE NO IDEA! *sobs* ALL THOSE PEOPLE WERE IN SUCH HUGE SUPPORT OF ME! WAAAAAAH!

Oz and Alice: *sweatdrop*

Pikachika23: I WILL WORK EXTRA HARD NOW! THE READERS DESERVE AN AMAZING FANFICTION! I WILL PUT FORTH 120% EFFORT!

Alice: What's with the caps lock?

Random narrator: It's supposed to represent that Pikachika23 is filled with emotion.

Alice: Ah. I see. Wait. Who the heck are you?

Random narrator: Uh...no one?

Oz: Hey, I know that guy! He appeared in the last author's dialogue, too!

Alice: YOU STALKER! Get him! I bet it's that crazy clown Break!

Random narrator: Uh-oh. Readers, please read and review! We'll be back! What? Alice-no! NOT THE SCYTHE!

Pikachika23: Ehehehehe...that was a little random. Anyways. Please enjoy this chapter, it's a little longer than usual, and I did try hard to please you this time around. Thank you so much for the reviews! Tell me what you think this time around, too! ...Alice. Wait, Alice, put down the scythe! Don't hurt the narrator! ALICE!

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><p>Alice<p>

Break laughed by himself in his seat after Oz asked whether we were getting paid in money or not, and he didn't stop shaking until a good five minutes later. I didn't understand how he could find all of these normal comments so hilarious. As soon as he managed to calm down, three phones simultaneously rang.

All at once, Break, Sharon, and Seaweed whipped out their cell phones and said in unison, "Hello?"

It was almost scary how robotic and trained their responses to this was. They were like most Chains in the Abyss – little mind and all action. I shuddered at the thought that some humans on Earth were the same as Chains in the Abyss.

They responded to the opposite line together. "Uh-huh. Yeah. Of course." Of course, Break was speaking in a shrill, bird-like tone, but other than that, they were the same. In one clap of three phones, they were tucked back away into the pockets of the three Pandora agents. Creepy…

"Pandora has called us to a meeting at the headquarters," Sharon said, softly smiling. "So we'll have to get going."

"We'll be back in time for dinner," Break said brightly. "Be sure to bring back some food for us!"

Was he serious? "Like I'll ever get anything for _you,_" I muttered. Even if I had the money, I would much rather buy something useful for me…such as pork.

"You're just going to leave us here?" Oz asked incredulously.

"Not alone, of course," Break replied. He reached up to his hat and tweaked the rim of it. What a creep. "There will be servants all around here monitoring your every move in return for Pandora's money. So be careful what you do, or else I might change my mind about letting you go against the law of imprisoning illegal citizens."

I scowled at him. "You seem to respect this law of yours a lot," I commented, glaring at him.

He didn't bat an eye and beamed. "Oh, yes! Law is top priority, of course! After money, obviously. And other personal needs. Such as money."

Oz and I were rendered speechless. I wondered just how valuable money was to the people on Earth, but Oz was probably just shocked at how _much _Break loved the stuff. I was glad for it anyway; if money was what was keeping these three from tossing me back into the Abyss, I loved it twice as much as Break did. Seaweed rolled his eyes and walked out, his trench coat whirling with a soft and cool shifting noise behind him. Sharon followed gracefully and Break practically skipped after them.

"That was…interesting," Oz commented in the silence that followed.

I stood up. "Let's go and get some chicken or something," I said urgently, and then began to rush for the door.

Oz grabbed my arm and I was yanked backward. "What?" I demanded, glaring some more.

He blinked calmly before smiling. "Your arm. It hurts, doesn't it?"

Huh? My arm? It took me longer than it should have to realize he was talking about the arm that I cut with that dagger. When he mentioned it, it did throb a little. Not as much as it did the moment when I had to split the skin apart, though, so I could deal. "Not really," I answered. "It's nothing. Let's just go and –"

"It's not 'nothing'," he responded, surprising me with the stubborn tone in his voice. He pouted at me, and I cringed at that facial expression. I saw some babies sitting in strollers once with that kind of look, and thought maybe as people grew older they grew out of it. Apparently not. "On Earth, getting hurt is important and you must do something about it."

I crossed my arms at this prospect. Interesting. In the Abyss, if you got hurt, then all the Chains would just go after you and eat you. No one cared if you were wounded. So you had to toughen up or die. "Okay, then. What are you going to do? Heal me with your magical powers?"

He beamed at me. "Yep!"

I raised an eyebrow at him, but he walked straight into another room that had some nice white tiles and marble counters lining the vanilla walls. There was a huge, silver box (with a handle, like with doors, on it) up against the wall that nearly touched the ceiling, and some of the counters had "stoves", I think they were called. "There was a room like this in the house I lived in," I said out loud. "What do you use it for?"

Oz was already digging through the cabinets. "It's a kitchen," he answered. "People make food here."

I perked up. Food? As in… "You can make _anything?_"

"Well, pretty much." He smiled as he found an object; it was a plastic box filled with some weird looking ribbons and bottles. "Yep. This thing hasn't moved."

"What is it?" I asked, marveling as he lifted the lid of the box and revealed the innards. I had no idea what these things were.

"My dad bought this for me when I was little," he explained. "It's a first aid kit. It's for treating injuries and stuff. He didn't want me climbing onto sinks in bathrooms to reach the bandages and stuff inside medicine cabinets, where there were some pills that I could overdose on if I got curious. So he put the entire box in the kitchen for me if I ever needed it." He grinned a little, and then it vanished from his face just as quickly. Speaking of his father was difficult, I guess. Even if I didn't understand why, his father must have meant a lot to him.

Oz shook out of his thoughts. "Come here," he told me. I bristled.

"Don't order me around!" I snapped, huffing. "You're my contractor, also known as my servant. _I'm _supposed to be the one giving orders here."

He laughed at me. Laughed! I tensed up at this fearless reaction. Didn't he know that if I got too mad, I could slash him up in the form of B-Rabbit? "Okay, okay. _Please_ come here, Alice."

I sniffed. "Since you asked so politely…" I walked over to him as he boosted himself onto the counter. I followed suit and climbed onto the cold surface.

"Give me your arm," he told me. I decided not to point out that he was starting to order me around again. I shoved my sleeve-covered, wounded arm at him. Because the sweatshirt was black to begin with, you could barely see the blood that seeped through. Oz pulled the sleeve back to my elbow, revealing the cut on the underside of my arm that stretched from my wrist halfway to my elbow. Dried blood was smudged around the open skin, and some was still seeping out of the cut. Now that it had been brought to my attention, it hurt like my whole arm was on fire.

Oz winced at the sight of it. "Let's first wash it," he told me as he started digging through the box, glancing at each label on each bottle. "Turn to the sink and clean the blood, will you?"

I glanced over to my left and saw the sink. Two twisty knob-things and a curved spout that opened its mouth over a large, open, silver-colored container with some kind of drain in the center. "Um…" I muttered.

"What's the matter?" Oz asked.

I murmured some incoherent words underneath my breath. He then said, "You…don't know how to turn it on, do you?"

I whirled my head to glare at him. "You can't blame me!" I snapped. "It's good enough that I can even identify the 'sink' or whatever! How the heck am I supposed to know how to operate these things when –"

To my alarm, he began to laugh again. "Calm down, Alice," he told me, beaming. "I'm sorry. It's just these kinds of things are common sense to me since I grew up around them. Here, I'll show you how to turn it on."

He hopped off the counter and headed over to the sink beside me. "This one is the one with hot water," he said, pointing to the knob on the left that had a red circle on it. "This one has cold water." He tapped the knob on the right, with a blue circle. "You turn them on like this." Oz reached for the left knob and then twisted it with a quirk of the wrist, and water came splashing down from the spout.

"Whoa!" I exclaimed. This was amazing…almost as amazing as meat… "So you just turn it on and it gives you water?"

Oz grinned at my reaction. "Yep." He turned off the water. "Try it."

He returned to his seat on the counter as I peered curiously at the sink. Interesting contraption…Earth was fascinating once I learned more about it. I reached for one of the knobs.

"Ah, and Alice, be sure not to turn the knob too much or –"

Oops.

I did the exact thing that Oz was about to warn me not to do. I twisted the water's switch a little too much, and water came flooding out of the spout in cascades. Most of it ricocheted off the bottom of the sink and, by some strange rebellion against gravity or whatever they call it, lunged at me in mists that turned into a rainstorm. "Turn it off!" Oz shouted, panicking and trying to duck away from the water.

"How?" I demanded, totally clueless. I grasped the knob again and turned it, and just my luck: I made the downpour even stronger, and water splattered at me relentlessly. I couldn't barely breathe from the water that was battering at my chest. In horror, I made a conclusion: this sink had a mind of its own! It was evil!

"The other way! Turn it the other way!"

The other way. Right. I quickly twisted it the opposite direction until the water died. "That's right!" I said, stabbing a finger at the sink. "Die!"

Oz sighed beside me. "Alice…"

I turned to him, saying, "What?" And then I saw that he was just as wet as I was. Uh...

He beamed at me, his emerald eyes sparkling. "That was fun, wasn't it?" Then he chuckled a little, brushing some wet blond hair from his face. He was laughing. How could he laugh in this kind of situation? "Alice, you sure know how to make my day!"

Anything within a five-foot radius of the sink was wet. The floor, the counters, everything. "We'll have to buy new bandages," Oz told me as he cautious made his way to something people called a garbage can. He then tossed the strange ribbon things into it.

"What are bandages?" I asked.

He looked over at me. He then pointed at the ribbons in the garbage can. "Um…this roll of bandages is used to wrap up wounds like yours. But since they're wet, I don't think we can use them. You can come with me to a store and buy them."

I nodded and stepped onto the floor. Luckily, I was wearing boots, so it was easier to walk around. Unluckily, I was still walking on a slippery, tiled floor. Before I knew it, my foot slid on the water and I tumbled forward.

Oz was in my path and he barely let out a cry of alarm before I crashed into him and dragged him onto the floor with me.

I wasn't hurt that much, since Oz acted like a cushion for me. I lifted my head from his chest and glanced at his face. "Are you okay?" I asked. If my contractor died, I could guess that the ending wouldn't be good for me, either.

"I'm fine," he told me. "Er...can you get off?"

I just then realized that I was practically pinning him to the floor with my body weight. I scrambled to my feet and Oz did the same. "Be careful," he told me. "It would have been dangerous if you hit your head."

I nodded quietly. "I'll be careful."

He then smiled at me again. "Let's get going to buy some bandages," he told me.

Together we left the kitchen, both of us dripping wet. A bunch of maids scurried into the kitchen to wipe up our mess. One tossed me some dry clothes and I was glad for yet another dark sweatshirt. I didn't want to go on the streets with a conspicuous, bleeding arm. In the Abyss, that was called standing out, and I was pretty sure on Earth it was the same.

As I changed, I suddenly thought of something. _It would have been dangerous if you hit your head. _It made me uneasy, what Oz said to me. In that situation, he was the one in the most danger of hitting his head on the floor. So why was he telling me it was dangerous if _I _hit _my _head? I quickly shook my head and cleared it of my wondering.

I met Oz at the front door, both of us considerably presentable know except for the hair. The still-wet hair. Oz laughed when I appeared. "What?" I demanded.

"Nothing," he told me. "Just remembering what happened with the sink. Let's go."

The sink...I felt my ears turn hot. That was indeed extremely clumsy on my part. I perked up. Was I feeling...embarrassed? A human emotion? Oz opened the door as I thought about this. A human emotion...

Maybe I was more human than I thought.


	19. Moral Matters

Sorry for the long wait! I was having serious writers' block with this one chapter for practically no reason. It was rather pathetic.

The strange thing is, my writers' block for this chapter was caused by an overwhelming amount of random ideas that crammed my brain. And then I was trying to figure out which of the ideas would fit into the plot of this story since most of them were rather corny and Alice isn't exactly a corny type...yet. And that was when my brain just like blew a fuse or something and refused to think at all. Don't ask. It doesn't make sense.

Anyways. Enjoy!

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><p>Oz<p>

Alice and I walked side-by-side on the sidewalk. People we passed stared at us for a little, or rather; they stared at Alice. She was wearing a sweatshirt in one of the prime months of the summer, and a dark one at that. The fact that she didn't even seem bothered by her conspicuous clothing made her stand out even more. As far as I knew now, drawing too much attention wasn't a good thing. And as if this didn't make me concerned enough, I was also extremely uneasy that someone might recognize me as the long-lost, non-aging son of Zai Vessalius.

Well, that and…

We were supposed to be in school.

Strange thing to think about while strolling the streets with an organism of another dimension, I know. But we were quickly drawing suspicion from adults that drove past us or walked past us. It was a school day, no doubt about that, and two teenagers that were supposed to be attending class were instead roaming the streets.

In my head, I actually created an equation:

_Sweatshirt in August + son of famous rich person + 2 teenagers skipping school = attention = **BAD**  
><em>

I felt like any moment, I would panic and then run back to what used to be my mansion. The fact that Alice was perfectly calm and flapping her sweatshirt sleeves back and forth like some kind of bird didn't help, either.

And for some reason, I felt like no matter who it was, an old man leaning on a cane or a baby in a stroller; everyone would be able to tell that Alice was otherworldly. So whenever I saw us approaching someone, I would stiffen up, suspecting that the opposite person would stab a finger at Alice and say, "You are a Chain! Back to the Abyss with you!"

Of course, it didn't happen. When we got to the pharmacy, I was walking so stiffly that it seemed like my joints were hinges. Alice glanced at me strangely as I headed to the automatic doors and strode through them as gracefully as possible for a tin man. A group of girls that were busy applying makeup with handheld mirrors giggled as I awkwardly walked past.

Lines of shelves were evenly spaced within the perfectly white store. There was the small tinge of antibacterial smell in the air, and Alice's and my heels thudded gently on the gleaming white tiles. Hung from the ceiling on wires were bright red signs with white lettering, spelling out the items within each section. I charged straight for the bandage aisle and peered at the boxes.

I decided to grab a roll of bandages similar to the ones that had been wasted by the little sink incident. It wasn't like those small ones would help Alice much. When I turned to Alice, she was hunched over, staring at her shoes. I was almost afraid to distract her from this activity. After contemplating for a moment or two, I said, "Um…Alice?"

She lifted only her head to glance at me, her hair then falling over her eyes so she couldn't see. She didn't make a move to fix it. "What?" she said to me monotonously.

"What exactly are you doing?"

She pointed down at the floor, the tips of her hair tickling the tiles. "I can see my reflection."

She…she could see her reflection in the tiles. I glanced down and saw the slightly blurry and warped image of myself. I found it bizarre that she would notice this while we were in dire need of healing her wound. "Is it very important on Earth?" she continued. "What you look like, I mean."

I glanced at her curiously. Where was she going with this?

Her hair draped over so that the tips stroked the tiles. "You can see what your face looks practically wherever you go." She straightened up, and her hair covered her face like a fog. She didn't bother to straighten it back to its original position as she faced the clear windows and pointed at them. "Look. You can almost see yourself in that, too. Do people seriously spend money on those mirror-things when you can just look at your window?"

"Alice…?" I slowly said.

Alice blinked behind the lines of her hair. "I saw it outside, too. Those girls were putting some weird powder or paint or whatever on their faces to cover up small bumps on their faces. Why do they do that?" Her tone was beginning to turn steely. Aw...she was still cute even though she was ranting.

"Appearance is just a little important on Earth," I told her, juggling the roll of bandages between my hands. I thought for a moment and then revised: "Okay…appearance is a _lot _important on Earth."

She snorted in response and crossed her arms. "Like _how _important? Important enough to decide how your life works?"

I paused. "Um…I guess some jobs depend on things like your height?" Funny, a monster from a different dimension was making me think about moral issues in society when she had hardly been here long enough to notice them, and I had been surrounded by them my whole life. What a great person I am. "And your social status with other people, I guess…"

"And people would also use money to buy things like mirror and face-paint rather than use it to buy something useful. Like, say, beef."

Of course. She could bring something like meat into a conversation about looks. "How you look must be pretty important around here, isn't it?" she said. "Kind of sad. In the Abyss, at least, you would be judged on something valid. Like how powerful you are, and therefore how good you taste."

My eyes widened as she said this in an extremely casual tone. How…how good you _taste?_ I swallowed involuntarily at this. This was _valid?_ For some reason, the word "taste" triggered that wonderful thought about drinking blood. I felt my gag reflux acting up.

Alice then said, "So Earth is pretty similar to the Abyss, if you look at it one way." Her face scrunched up. "I think only the fact that there's sunlight and meat is better. Don't you think that?"

No. Obviously not. Because while Alice thought of scary Chains as normal beings, I'd prefer sticking around humans any day. I mean, that one encounter with that baby-spider mutant thing just... "Let's go," I said quickly in an attempt to change the subject, and clear my mind of the Chain. "We still have to treat that arm of yours."


	20. GooFoam

Sorry for the delay. Again. I had been intending to do this chapter for a while now, except homework was dragging me down so much. I'm so sorry! I hope you enjoy this one. I'm working on the next chapter already, and it's already starting to be one of my favorites. ;) You'll have to wait to see why!

(Also, I found this super awesome persona/BG thing for my internet browser that has Jack, Break, Gil, Oz, and Alice on it. *fangirls* And now I can edit PH fanfiction while looking up to find a PH background! Yayz!)

Enjoy!

* * *

><p>Oz<p>

Alice and I returned to the mansion after our trip and I proceeded to wrap up the cut after washing off the blood in the kitchen sink. The jagged red line embedded in her arm was still rather intimidating. I couldn't understand how she wasn't even complaining about the pain that surely existed. "Seriously, did you have to cut the dagger that deep?" I said.

She shrugged in response. "In order to draw enough blood, I guess," she said. Then she glanced at her arm as I wound the bandages around her arm. "And maybe I was just too excited to finally be leaving the Abyss that I didn't realize how deep I was cutting it."

I couldn't blame her for that. The Abyss was a scary place. I finished up with the ribbons and placed the remaining bandages back into the first aid box.

"What exactly do these things do?" Alice asked, poking at the layer of bandages on her arm.

"They make sure cuts don't get infected," I answered as I jammed the first aid kit back into the cabinets.

She paused for a moment. "What does that 'infected' mean? In terms of wounds?"

Uh…how would I explain this? I turned to her and thought for a moment. Simple was good. "Well, if you accidentally get germs onto the –"

"What are germs?" she said shortly.

For a moment the two of us stood there in silence. Even if I were to piece together all the things I learned in biology classes, Alice wouldn't be able to understand any of it. I shook my head. "Let's just forget about that. It's kind of just trivial knowledge."

She slowly nodded. "Then, until Seaweed and them come back, do you think there's time to go out and buy some chicken or whatever?"

I swallowed nervously at the hungry look in her eyes. It was a pretty threatening sight. _As threatening as her rabbit form?_ my inner voice asked. I shuddered, wondering whether it was good or bad that I had passed out before I could see her Chain form. "Well, about that…" I began.

Alice must have sensed that I was going to reject her idea, because she turned her head extremely quickly and glared at me, her irises flashing dangerously. "About _what,_ _manservant._"

Uh-oh. Think fast, Oz, before she decides to eat _you _instead. "I was already planning on teaching you stuff about human behavior!" I hurriedly blurted out.

Spot on. I could praise myself for that quick thinking. Alice blinked for a few moments. "Human…behavior?"

I forced out a laugh. "Yep! I mean, there's a lot more to Earth than just buying meat from street vendors, you know!"

She sniffed and crossed her arms. "I've been here for some time now. It doesn't seem like there's anything interesting. Except for the sky, maybe. And the sun. And the trees."

So, pretty much _everything _was interesting to her. Then again, the Abyss did lack all of those things. That…was when I thought of something.

"Hey, do you have spare clothes back at the abandoned house you lived in?" I asked.

She shook her head, her hair whirling with the movement. "No." She looked down at the sweatshirt and jeans. "I've worn these my whole life."

I gawked. Her…her _whole life?_ "What do you mean by that?" I asked, hoping that her answer would be better than I was expecting.

Alice gave me an expression as if she thought I was stupid. "I mean, from the moment I found myself in the Abyss to right now, this is the only thing I've worn. Ever."

E-ever.

...Hygiene.

I lunged forward and grabbed her wrist, yanking her with me toward the second floor. "Hey!" she snapped as we walked along. She tried to pull away, but fortunately I was way too determined to be beaten. We could get the clothes later from Sharon just in case she had some spare stuff to give to Alice, but personal hygiene had to be taken care of immediately. "What are you doing?"

I strode straight into the giant bathroom and to the marble sink that was flanked by several white marble counters. There was a single tube of toothpaste, a half-full bottle of mouthwash, and a glass holding someone's pink toothbrush sitting on the counters. "Let…go…of…_me!_" she shouted in this scary, monster voice, alarming me to releasing her wrist.

Alice gritted her teeth for a moment. Even though she wasn't exactly taller than me, I felt like I was being loomed over as she growled, "Who are you to drag me along as you wish, _contractor?_"

I laughed shakily. "_Well, _you did _say _that you wanted _to _learn about the _marvels _of human _be_havi_or_," I managed to say, placing emphasis on random words under her scary expression.

She sighed, shutting her eyes and calming down. "Fine." She paced around on the vanilla tiles, looking around at the pale blue walls. "What's so interesting about this room?"

I headed for a counter and opened the cabinets below it, snatching out a pack of new toothbrushes. "What are those?" Alice asked curiously, walking over to me as I pulled out a red toothbrush from the container.

"This, is a toothbrush," I said, holding it up close to her nose. She tried to look at it and nearly went cross-eyed. Then, for lack of better wording, I said, "You use it to…brush…your…teeth."

She snatched the toothbrush from me and proceeded to inspect every individual bristle of the brush part. Then she opened her mouth and drew her finger along her front row teeth. "You mean these teeth?" she asked, as if we had any _other _teeth.

I took the toothbrush from her and grabbed the toothpaste, unscrewing the cap and then squeezing out a line of red-and-white paste onto the bristles. "What's _that?_" Alice asked, mystified.

"It's called toothpaste."

She tilted her head. "Is it edible?"

I looked at her. "Um…no."

She wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Well, that's already bad."

"This is something humans do every single day," I told her, holding out the toothbrush towards her. "And you should too."

After a few moments, Alice lifted her hand and grasped the brush. She turned it back and forth in her hands, skeptical. Then she jammed it into her mouth.

.

.

.

"Now what?"

I could have sworn that a ten-ton brick just fell on my head. She didn't understand the concept of a brush… "Um…you just sort of draw the bristles along your teeth," I said, wondering how much simpler I could put it. "And try to clean between them, too."

She nodded. The way she was completing a common activity was rather entertaining – she looked like a toddler, clumsy and uncoordinated. "Why ish sha goo tuhning to poam?" she suddenly said.

"Um…what?"

"I shaid, 'why ish sha goo tuhning to poam'?"

I stood there and stupidly pondered what she could possibly be saying. No doubt about it, the toothpaste and the brush in her mouth was giving her a definite accent. Before I could ask her to repeat herself, she leaned over the sink and violently spat out the toothpaste. "_I asked why the goo was turning to foam, you useless, brain-dead Oz!_" she hollered promptly, her eyes glinting.

"Um, well, that, uh, see," I spluttered.

She snarled at me before turning on the sink and washing out her mouth. "It tastes funny," she commented after scrubbing the bristles of the toothbrush. At least she knew to clean _that._ "The…_toothpaste._"

I grinned. "I know something that tastes funnier."

Alice raised an eyebrow, but she was no doubt curious. "Which is…?"

I snatched up the bottle of mouthwash, watching the turquoise-blue liquid swish within its prison. "This."


	21. The Mall

Alice

Mouth…wash?

"What's the point of that?" I asked, not believing in the slightest that the strange liquid inside the bottle could possibly be useful. It didn't even look drinkable.

"It clears your mouth of invisible germs!" Oz exclaimed, triumphantly holding up the bottle. Germs…why couldn't he just explain to me what those were?

He took the pink toothbrush out from its glass and placed it on the edge of the sink before unscrewing the cap on the bottle and pouring a tiny amount of the liquid into the glass. Then he took a giant swig from it. I thought he swallowed the stuff but he wound up just swishing it around in his mouth.

And then he spit it into the sink. I watched as it drained with a strange, tortured gurgle.

He rinsed out the glass and then filled it again with the mouthwash, holding it out to me. "You try! It's even more interesting than the toothpaste that turns to foam," he said…happily? No…there was something strange with that expression on his face. "Make sure not to swallow it!"

Our fingers brushed slightly as I took the small glass from him. For a moment, I peered into glass and twirled it a little, watching the liquid toss around. Well…if this was what humans did…

I drained it all into my mouth. There was no reaction after a second. Then, a slow, burning sensation filled every corner of my mouth: the gums, tongue, everything. In a way, the surprise pain was worse than when I split my skin open with the dagger.

I panicked and whirled around in random turns, unsure what to do. I was stuck with pain like fire that was digging around in my mouth and didn't know what to do with it.

Apparently the thought of doing the same as the toothpaste in foam-form – spitting it out into the sink – didn't occur to me. So I spat it elsewhere.

Right…on…Oz.

It wasn't exactly my fault. He was in the general direction that I was facing the moment I felt like my face would be torn apart by evil mouthwash...and when I spewed it all over him.

He glanced at me, his shirt specked with tiny spots of mouthwash mixed with spit. "I missed your face," I pointed out to the strange expression on his face. "You should be grateful for that. Otherwise your eyes would probably be burning like what happened to my whole mouth."

Being Oz, he burst out laughing. As in, he actually keeled over and started laughing so hard that the walls were so unprepared for the magnitude of it; they couldn't absorb his laughs and could only bounce them back. So it sounded doubly loud.

"You felt the _burn?_" he asked, recovering enough to choke out the statement. "You – _hahaha!_"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "What do you mean by that? You already knew about the fact that it would feel like something was burning holes into my mouth?"

"Well…yeah." He beamed. "After all, it's mouthwash!"

How dare he! I wanted to plant his face into the floor, but he interrupted that thought with, "There are lots of things that are even cooler than mouthwash, though."

'Cool'? "Mouthwash isn't cool," I muttered, but he totally ignored me.

"Come on!" he exclaimed, reaching for my wrist. But I wasn't going to be so slow again as to be dragged somewhere…again.

"Where?" I demanded.

He smiled so widely that not only flowers appeared, but they sparkled, too. It hurt my eyes. "Shopping, of course! We're going to buy you some clothes and then I'll show you some more wonders of the world!" He paused. "Well…not _the _Wonders of the World, just wonders of the world."

I didn't understand the difference between 'wonders of the world' and 'wonders of the world'. While I was pondering it, Oz took the opportunity to snatch be by my once-again unsuspecting wrist and dragged me all the way back down the stairs.

He's a fast guy, I'll tell you that. I couldn't see anything but the pink, yellow, and vanilla blurs that were supposedly the walls. "Slow down!" I hollered as we burst through the door to the outside environment.

I felt like my arm would be yanked from its socket when Oz finally lowered his speed enough so that I wasn't flying behind him. "Ugh," I groaned, glancing around, disoriented. "Where am I?"

Oz was still beaming, his eyes dilated in excitement. "Look!" He stabbed a finger upward.

I glanced up. Towering above us was a huge building, half as tall as it was wide. The exterior was a dull gray, with several pairs of glass doors around the perimeter. People were flowing in and out like a river.

"What is this?" I asked, awestruck.

"It's what we call the mall!" Oz answered happily. "You can buy anything here! It's even better than the market!"

The two of us walked toward one of the doors, weaving through rows of cars. "Hey, Alice," he said while I was gaping at the building and walking at the same time. "Do you know what these are?"

I flicked my eyes just long enough to see him nodding at a car. "Yeah. It's called a car. I heard some people talking about them when I first came here. Something about how one was stolen. And then some other people pointed at one that was moving down the roads and they said they wanted one like that." I shrugged. "I don't know what they're for though." Truthfully, I thought cars just smelled funny. When they drove past you, all you could smell was that choking, smoky and poison-y stench that filled your nostrils and throat. The rabbit part of me nearly died.

"They're to get around," Oz told me. He brushed his finger along the bright red coat of a car. "You hop in one and control it. It's a lot faster than walking. We'll get Gil to drive us around sometime."

I slowly nodded, tearing my eyes from the 'mall' and looking at the cars as we walked. They looked like animals. I thought they could come alive and roar and spit that disgusting smell around, but they just sat in an orderly fashion. Dead. I tried to imagine Seaweed-Head controlling one of them and sniffed in amusement at the scene of him crashing into a wall.

We reached the doors of the mall. When I reached out, searching for a handle, they split apart and cleared the way. I stopped walking, standing still in front of the doors. Oz paused. "Um, Alice?"

"Those doors are _alive,_" I hissed.

Oz glanced at me, to the doors, and back to me. The doors, as if impatient, began to come back together with their soft humming sounds. "Oh!" Oz said, suddenly chuckling. "_Those _doors? That's perfectly normal."

Perfectly…normal. I decided not to comment on that before he would stare at me like I was stupid.

It wasn't entirely clear to me what exactly we were doing there. Oz had a happy expression on his face the entire trip. He dragged me around the whole building, heedless as to whether or not I was tired or didn't want to walk. He used the money that Break granted him as a "premature payment for your services" and swept practically every single piece of clothing in every single store off the hangers, making the people that received our money stare as if we were mentally unstable.

"Ooh, this looks pretty!" he exclaimed, picking up a long piece of pink cloth and allowing me to catch my breath. He turned to me. "What do you think?"

I tilted my head, staring at the cloth. "What is it for?"

He tossed it around his neck and fingered the ends. "It's a scarf! To protect your neck when it's cold outside!"

I raised an eyebrow at this. He had clearly lost all sanity for that moment. "Oz…it's really warm out."

He paused, as if just realizing this prospect. "Oh! Right!" He untwined the scarf from his neck and then stared at it for a moment. I cringed, knowing exactly what would happen next:

"Oh well! Let's just get it anyway!"

I gritted my teeth, becoming irritated by his lack of consideration. "Oz…_why are we buying all of this useless stuff instead of meat?_"

He turned to me, blinking innocently. "But Alice…"

I held up all of the bags he had crammed into my palms during the trip. "My hands are cramping!"

"Alice, Alice, Alice," he said to me, suddenly sounding extremely old. He paced around in front of me, his eyes gently closed. I swallowed nervously. "Do you know the reason I'm doing this?"

"Uh…no?"

"Take a guess."

I thought for a moment. Why? Well, considering how weird of a person he was… "Because you're a deranged child who does things on impulse and you had a sudden urge to come and wipe out every single space here!"

He stared at me as if there was no hope for my future. Okay…so it wasn't that, then. "Because you want me to lose my arms!" I said, showcasing my aching limbs again.

Oz shook his head. I squeaked, "Because you want me to lose my fingers?"

He sighed, shutting his eyes. This Oz was very scary. It looked like he was actually thinking. "No…" When he looked up, his eyes were glittering like his usual self. I didn't even get the chance to feel relieved when he grabbed my shoulders and said, "You are a cute person, Alice! In order to emphasize your cuteness, we must show your true potential of appearance to the world! Do you understand?"

In truth, I still had absolutely no idea what his motives were, but I nodded anyway. "Uh-huh…"

"Good! Then let's go!" ...And he skipped off again, leaving me to scurry after his path.


	22. Senior Members

Yay! Two updates close to each other! :D

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><p>Oz<p>

When we got back to the mansion, I was in an extremely good mood. It had been a nice outing with Alice, even though she seemed highly reluctant. "We are back!" I announced loudly as I opened the door.

I turned after hearing a loud thud. Alice had fell face-first onto the floor, all of the shopping bags splayed out around her. Hmm...what was wrong with her? "Welcome back, Oz," Sharon said, walking out into view.

"Is your meeting over?" I asked, turning to her.

She nodded, smiling. "It was relatively short; just a little overview on Abyss and Chain activity from the past month." Then she spotted Alice, not moving from her position on the ground. Sharon's eyes grew. "What…what's wrong with Alice?"

I chuckled and waved her concern off. "Oh, her. She's probably just a little tired."

Sharon took in the sight of the giant pile of bags. "Where did you go?" she asked, awestruck.

"The mall!" I exclaimed. "It was a nice trip."

Skeptically, she looked at the unconscious Alice. She then slowly nodded. "It must have been…very…_nice…_"

"Oi, Oz-or-whatever-your-name-is, could you not arrive into this house and yell that you're here? I was just watching a suspenseful crime show when you just happened to break the crime-fighting and –" Gil stopped, seeing Alice on the ground upon entering. "Um…is the Stupid Rabbit okay?"

"She's perfectly okay!" I assured. I mean, it was Alice's first time at the mall. Who could blame her for passing out from the excitement? I bent down to her unmoving figure and said, "Come on, Alice! We're home now!"

Groggily, she raised her head amongst the sea of purchased clothes, her hair covering her face in a way that was similar to those girls you see in ghost movies. "Seaweed…Head?" she said tiredly.

Gil glared at her. "Clearly, I had nothing to ask about. She's energized enough to insult my hairstyle."

He turned to leave, but he was unable to take even a single step before Alice reached out and grabbed his pant leg. "You…" she said, her threatening voice slowly returning. "You…" She lifted her head fully, flashing purple eyes visible from between the strands of the hair over her face. "_Take all of these clothes._"

Right before Gil could retort, another voice entered the conversation. "Oh, my, my," Break said, entering the scene while waving around the sleeves that reached past his hands. "A little forceful here, aren't we?" I winced. His overly excited mood wasn't helping.

Alice's head whipped toward him. Her tone didn't soften any; if anything, it only grew more hostile. "You too, Clown. Take them all to where I'm going to be sleeping before I _cut your head open with my scy –"_

I leaped forward and covered her mouth rather forcefully. She didn't even flail: she just stayed in her position and continued to glare at Break. "Oh, Alice, aren't you _so _funny?" I said, laughing nervously. I could tell from her morbid tone of voice that she definitely wouldn't hesitate to transform into her Chain form and go on a rampage with her infamous scythe. "Sharon, can you tell us where our rooms are?"

Sharon exchanged glances with Break. "Well…"

I didn't like that word at all. "Well, what?"

"You see, when we bought this mansion, we hadn't exactly anticipated that anyone else would be actually staying here," Break quickly said.

"There are around ten guest rooms here," I told him blandly. "I would know. I lived here."

"You lived here ten years ago," he corrected. "But since we own this place now, things have changed."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Meaning?"

"Sharon has transformed three of those guest rooms into display rooms."

"Display rooms for what?"

"So many questions!" Break said, chuckling lightly. "You are a curious one, aren't you, Mr. Oz Vessalius?"

"Answer the question, please," I said, annoyance prickling at my nerves. Break sure had a way of irritating people.

"That…" Sharon said darkly, her face shadowed, "is none of your business. Oz."

I backed off after that, like you would expect a puppy would to a bear. Sharon was not someone to be messed with. "But what happened to the other seven rooms?" I asked. "I mean, we only need two of them!"

"The other ones have been abandoned," Break remarked. "Absolutely abandoned. _Totally _abandoned. _Utterly _aba – "

"In other words, if you want to live here, you'll have to clear the dust from your own room," Gil interrupted, sighing. "It isn't the job of Pandora members to clean up old rooms."

"We're Pandora members, too," I said. "So that means it's not our job, either."

It was silent for a moment when Gil realized that I was right. Break broke it, saying, "Oh-ho-ho! Gil meant that it wasn't the job of _senior _Pandora members. But since you've only been employed for a few hours at most, you can't exactly be considered _senior _members, can you?"

Alice was emitting an evil aura. "I…will…"

"_Oh, _we were just going, weren't we, Alice?" I said hurriedly. It would be best if she calmed down first. It wasn't like I wanted to have to clean up a room before I could sleep, but Alice would start mauling everyone if she wasn't placed in quarantine fast enough. I brought her to her feet, and all the way up the stairs she was shooting death stares at the Pandora members.

I opened the first door I saw and was met with a dark, musty room. It was exactly as one would expect a room to be after being left there for nearly a decade: cobwebs and dust. I spotted a light switch beside the doorway, which was also covered in webs. I brushed them off and flicked the switch off, only nothing lit up. I flicked it some more, but there was no change. The lights must have been busted.

Alice glanced around indifferently. She headed straight to the curtain-covered windows and brushed the curtains aside, setting dust particles into flight. The afternoon sun sent its arms through the glass, and for a moment she did nothing but stare outside. The sunlight did little to brighten up the murky mood of the room. "This room…is dirty."

I nodded in agreement behind her. "It is."

"And it's dark."

I glanced around. The gloomy effect of the room that wasn't taken care of made it seem exceptionally dark and shadowed. "It is," I repeated.

"It's almost like…the Abyss has followed me here."

I looked at her cape of brown hair that draped over her spine. She was hunched over a little. "You know, Oz," she said, "I feel really bad about dragging you into all of this."

"What?" I asked, confused.

"This whole thing with the Abyss and Chains." Her empty tone alarmed me. "I didn't think it was that bad to make you my contractor. But that was because I didn't know I would be condemning you to the Abyss." Her head dropped. "I'm…sorry."

Alice was being…sad. I could tell that she was a cynical person, but at least normally she was comical. Now she was just…

It must have been the fatigue from the day's (or rather, _years'_) events that caught up to her.

I walked over to her and stood beside her. "You shouldn't be blaming yourself for anything," I told her. "I agreed to it, so if it's anyone's fault, it would be mine. You were just desperate, Alice. Desperate people do desperate things."

"But-!" She turned to me, her fists clenched and her eyes flashing. "Don't you get it? It's worth it to die instead of going to the Abyss. And it's all because I couldn't tell the difference between 'legal' and 'illegal' contracts. I didn't even know that legal contracts existed!" Her head drooped again. "Who do those stupid _Pandora _people even think we are? They're controlling us to do petty things like clean their house and do their work for them…especially that Clown, too! He laughs like everything is no big deal…not even the fact that someone like you, Oz, is going to be banished to the evilest place ever to exist."

Whoa…she was serious. _Too _serious. I mean, I was the human that was going to live in the Abyss and I wasn't panicking like she was. "I can't leave for the Abyss," I said. "I have a life here to take care of. I have to find my father and my sister."

"Your…sister?"

I shifted uneasily. "Yeah. I never saw her much when I was little. She was always being sent off to be educated in the arts or something. My father decided that talent had to be nurtured, and so she was always in some kind of prestigious school."

"Always? Doesn't that mean…?"

I nodded. "Her name is Ada. We're more strangers than siblings. I sometimes can't even think of her as a part of my family, since we're so different. I try not to mention her as my sister since we're so far apart. I'm sure that it's the same way for her, too."

Alice didn't respond for a moment. "But I thought you told me that family members loved each other."

"They do." How would I explain this to Alice? "I do love my sister. But…" I stared down at my hands. "I don't know much about her except that she's a genius. And I'm nothing special like she is. She probably thinks of her older brother as just the heir to the Vessalius' family company." I paused for a moment. Wait…to my father and her, I was…dead. "Or…she _did _think that. It's hard to love someone you don't exactly know...don't you think?"

She didn't reply for a moment. I was afraid that I had made the atmosphere a little more dark than it had to be. Then: "I'm sure…your sister loves you."

I glanced over at Alice, surprised that those kinds of words could leave her mouth. She paused for a moment before continuing. "I mean…never mind. It's just intuition."

Intuition…even that kind of thing, coming from someone like Alice, could make me feel better. I sighed and looked around the room. If the two of us became depressed, even about different things, there wouldn't be any hope for finding my family or her memories. I landed a hand on her shoulder. "Let's get working."

Alice blinked at me. "Working on what?" She whirled her head around to take in the room. "_This?_"

"Of course! I don't want to sleep on the floor tonight! Do you?"

"No..."

"Of course you wouldn't!" I turned to the door. "I'll be back with some dusters...and we can get to cleaning this place!"

When I left the room, I heard Alice mutter to herself, "What's a duster?"


	23. Day 1: Over

Happy 2012 everyone! Enjoy!

* * *

><p>Oz<p>

"I…I will kill that Clown!"

I glanced downward at Alice from my standing on the chair, staring at her as she gripped her feather duster in a firm fist while proclaiming to the ceiling that she would murder Break. "Oh, we're almost done," I told her, raising my head again to continue unscrewing the light bulb from the ceiling lamp. For such an extravagant mansion, this light was sure…_un_extravagant.

"You can't blame me," Alice growled, resuming her dusting. "I've never done such a thing in my life…at least, I don't think I have."

I tossed the broken light bulb into the trashcan at my feet while chuckling. "It's necessary," I told Alice. "I mean, once this light is working, you'll be able to see the improvement. Can you pass me that light bulb?"

"That's another thing," Alice continued as she reached for the new bulb from the box and passed it to my outstretched hand. "It's dark out already!" She waved her duster at the window, which now showcased the silver, half-moon. "This whole thing is stupid. Cleaning is time-consuming and pointless."

I found her sulking overly adorable. "Done," I announced after I finished installing the new light bulb. I hopped down from the chair and walked to the door to flip the switch.

The room was immediately illuminated, showcasing walls of dark green and furniture of dark pine. The floor was carpeted with a deep red, supporting a huge, king-sized bed with a shimmering, golden canopy. For a majority of the time, Alice and I had been trying to dust every possible surface and crack. Now, looking at the expanse of the room, I understood why it had taken so long.

"Agh," Alice groaned, tossing herself ungracefully onto the bed and holding onto the red covers beneath her. "We're finally done…"

I awkwardly toyed with my shirt. "Um…"

She moved her head to look at me with a gleaming eye. It was the kind of expression you'd expect to see from a hawk targeting its prey, so I wasn't exactly anticipating her reaction to what I was going to tell her. "We still have to clean another room," I said.

Alice scrambled to sit straight up. "Why?" she hissed after properly seating herself on the edge of the mattress.

"Well…we can't might as well sleep in the same room, can we?"

She paused for a moment, as if thinking. "Why not?"

I stiffened. I couldn't even believe that I was still surprised when she didn't understand this kind of thing. "Simply put, it doesn't make sense when a teenage boy and girl are put in the same room overnight," I explained tensely.

She just blinked back at me before letting herself fall back on the bed. "You humans...I can't imagine anything strange about that."

I scurried over to her and poked my head in her field of view. "You don't get it, Alice! In that kind of situation…" I could feel blood rushing to my face. "Dangerous things can happen!"

She laughed at me. The reaction startled me – not so much that she was mocking my statement, but that she was actually smiling. Before I could think more of it, though, she reached up and patted my head like I was some kind of child. "If it's danger you're worried about," she told me, "I can take care of that. No one will want to sneak up on us and kill you with B-Rabbit around!"

I was…speechless. 'Dangerous things' to her meant absolutely _nothing._ I paced to the wall and rested my forehead against it.

"What's with the frustrated look you got there?" Alice asked, walking over to join me. She sighed. "Anyways, if you don't want to sleep in the same room as me, that's fine. But I'm not going to do any more cleaning." Her tone then turned critical. "Of course, I also claim this room. You don't have any protests for that, do you? _Contractor?_"

She might as well have said "dog" instead of "contractor" and I wouldn't have felt any different – scared.

I didn't feel like dusting or repairing lights anymore either. "I'll be washing first, then," I said, leaving the room. "I didn't teach you how to work the bath, did I? I'll tell Sharon to teach you."

I passed the message along to Sharon before grabbing all the shopping bags up to the hallway near the bedrooms. I felt…tired.

"Good evening, Oz!" Break greeted me as I entered the living room. I blinked at the TV screen, which was flashing bullets and blood.

"Oh, don't mind that," Break quickly said. "It's a little pastime of Raven's, watching crime shows and action movies." At this, Gil spared him a glance before returning his gaze to the giant television.

Break glanced at my t-shirt and sweats, which were a portion of the clothes I bought for myself earlier. "Nothing like a warm bath to wash off the day's stress, huh?"

Truthfully, I felt no different, but I didn't say so. I sat next to Gil on the fluffy sofa and stared at the screen for a moment. A bunch of people wearing sunglasses were barging into a house, waving guns and official badges around at the people inside the living room. "This is exactly like all the other crime shows in existence," Break said. "I don't see what makes it so amazing, Raven."

"Don't insult it!" Gil exclaimed, outraged. "Don't you see the brilliance? Look at those sunglasses!"

"What are sunglasses?"

Only one person would ask that question. I turned my head to see – yep, Alice, donned in an oversized white t-shirt that nearly reached her knees. Sharon stood behind her with that everlasting smile of hers. "Sharon, don't you think it looks…_suggestive _when you can't see any shorts or anything underneath that shirt?" Break asked.

"I think it's cute," Sharon sniffed in return. "I dug it out of Gil's closet."

"Eh?" Alice cut in. "Why am I wearing Seaweed-Head's stuff?"

"This hairstyle is the current fashion!" Gil protested. "Don't insult it!"

"It's cute!" Sharon insisted. She stood over me with an aura of threat. "Don't you think? Oz?"

I quickly nodded. Of course it was cute…I mean, not only would agreeing spare me from Sharon's wrath, but I sincerely thought that it suited Alice pretty well. She planted herself next to me on the sofa and brought her knees to her chest, pulling the hem of the t-shirt over her knees. For a moment she did nothing but stare at the flashing screen. I wondered if she knew what a TV was from the time she spent on Earth.

Apparently, she did. "What kind of a stupid show is this?" she asked bluntly.

"Stupid?" Gil shouted, leaping to his feet and stabbing a finger at Alice. "How _dare _you insult this wonderful, ingenious, amazing, emotional series!"

Alice calmly blinked at him. "It's stupid."

Gil gritted his teeth before snatching a pillow from the sofa and nailing Alice straight in the face with it. Gil angry was pretty scary, but I could only imagine what would happen with Alice. She didn't move when the pillow collided with her face, but then grabbed it so violently I thought it would be crushed to its feathery shreds. She lifted it, revealing a murderous face. "Today will be your _death day._"

She jumped to her feet, standing on the sofa cushion so that she was taller than Gil. "Prepare to die, Seaweed-Head!" she proclaimed, holding the pillow straight above her while pointing at Gil with her other hand. "No one throws something at B-Rabbit and gets away alive!"

"Bring it, Stupid Rabbit!" Gil challenged, grabbing another pillow. "You're nothing but a little girl right now!"

Oh…shoot.

Alice's eyes flashed outrage. "Alright!" she snarled. "Let's take this outside and you'll see how much of a _little girl_ I am then!"

"Alice," I said nervously, tugging on the hem of her shirt. "Let's not."

She turned her glare on me. I flinched. Bugging her was a bad idea. "Shut up, _servant!_" she shouted, her voice gradually taking on the kind of tone you would expect from a gang leader. "This concerns my pride as B-Rabbit! It seems that Seaweed-Head here won't accept my authority until I pummel him into dust!"

"Let's not get too violent," Break said. "You wouldn't want to destroy the house, would you?"

"_Which _is why I said we're going outside!" Alice interrupted. "You too, Clown! That stupid smile of yours is bugging me! I'm going to destroy that face of yours until it's unrecognizable to be a human's face!"

It suddenly became silent. Slowly, Gil glanced over at where Sharon was standing. She hadn't spoken a single word between Alice's and Gil's argument. We all peered over at her.

She was holding a rather large paper fan in her left hand, holding it over her shoulder like a weapon. Her right hand was placed on her hip. She coldly swept her eyes across the rest of us. "What is this about 'taking it outside'?" she said in a voice that sent chills darting across my skin.

Even Alice seemed intimidated. Slowly, she placed the pillow back on its place on the sofa. Gil followed her example. "Oh, I'm really tired," Alice said, making an extremely fake yawn. "I think I'm going to go and sleep now."

"Me, too!" I exclaimed, quickly taking the chance. She glanced at me evenly, and the two of us both scrambled for the stairs together.

"That lady is really scary," Alice commented when we got back to the room. She curled up on one side of the bed. "I thought she was the nicest person here…"

"Yeah," I agreed. I couldn't quite decide which was Sharon's true personality: the cute and bright one; or the scary, killing-intent one. "You too, Alice. I thought you were just an introverted person in my class. Not some kind of alternate-dimension monster."

I gingerly sat on the opposite edge of the bed, not bothering to turn on the light. "You're a pretty creepy person," she said after a few moments pause. "That hasn't changed. You smile too much for it to be normal."

I felt myself smirk at that. "To me, smiling is a sign of strength," I said. "It's such a common emotion that you see every single day. People think nothing of it."

"Oz, are you hiding something? Behind that smile of yours."

I glanced over my shoulder. Her back was turned to me. If she wasn't talking to me, I would have thought she was asleep. "You just said," she continued, "that smiling, to you, is the same thing as strength. You've been going around with that stupid smile of yours all day. Have you been? Why do _you_ need to be strong?"

That was a good question. "The loneliness, probably," I admitted. "People judged me for my father. I always felt I was alone. Maybe I thought smiling would help out with that, and it just became a habit."

"You get used to being alone," Alice told me. "Now shut up and sleep. I'm tired."

Tentatively, I laid myself down on the side of the bed. It must have been the first time in my life that I could feel the presence of someone else as I fell asleep. It wasn't a bad feeling at all.


	24. Bread

I'm so sorry I haven't updated in a while! I'm not going to make excuses because I know it's all my fault...Sorry!

I am desperately trying to write really good chapters for you guys. As you may be able to suspect, this will be a relatively long fanfiction, especially since most of the chapters are pretty short. So for the duration of this fanfic, I hope that you will all be able to support me and enjoy!

Please read and review! You have no idea how much joy it brings me when I read even the smallest review from someone on any of my fanfics. In return, **starting from the reviews I get on this chapter on**, I will give you recognition in the beginning of the chapter following the one you reviewed (also with a reply!).

Thank you and enjoy!

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><p>Alice<p>

When I woke up, something sweet filled my nose.

I blinked for a moment up at the canopy, silently relishing the warmth given to me by the nice, fluffy blankets. I hadn't slept this peacefully…at all, actually. The Abyss was always so foreboding and filled with the possibility of being attacked that I wouldn't sleep in case some Chain crept up while I was in dreamland. And in that time when I was trying to find a contractor, I didn't want to waste time by _sleeping._

I was surprised to know what sleeping felt like, actually. It was kind of…blank, yet relaxing. I then became slightly disappointed that I didn't experience those "dreams" that I heard people talk about.

As I was pondering it, that sweet smell started taking over what senses I had. I sat up, glancing around. Sunlight filled the room from the windows. I was alone.

"Break! Stop putting so much sugar!" Seaweed Head was shouting from the first floor.

"Oh, Raven," Clown responded cheerfully. "Don't worry. This will taste very nice."

"You're going to give us diabetes!" came the protest immediately. "And also, sugar should be used for _useful _things!"

I rubbed my eyes and swung my feet down to the floor. Great...after such a peaceful time of sleep, I wake up to hear two complete idiots bickering. The sound of something smashing rang to my ears. "_Break!_" Sharon screamed.

Slowly, my mind a little hazy, I stood up and found my way to the stairs, the sounds of Sharon screaming at the laughing Clown becoming even more apparent than they had been in the bedroom. "That was my favorite teacup!" she hollered. I could hear the growl that was becoming prominent in her tone. "How dare you break it!"

"Well, I had to have been named 'Break' for a reason! Ohohoho!"

I followed the noise and walked through the kitchen to a room with a large table with a bunch of chairs around it. And, just in time: I saw Sharon smacking the Clown over the head with a huge paper fan. Had I been completely awake, I might have been overjoyed to see him fall to the ground, clutching his head. Oz was holding a pink teacup to his lips, unsure how to react, while Seaweed Head calmly sipped the liquid in his; the two of them were sitting next to each other at the gleaming table. Sharon placed the fan on the table and sniffed before turning and seeing me. Instantly, her face brightened. "Good morning, Miss Alice! Did you sleep well?"

I scratched my head, the overwhelming smell of something incredibly sweet filling even my throat. "What happened to the Clown?"

"Oh, nothing!" Sharon exclaimed, waving it off. "He was just trying to put a lot of sugar in his morning tea and in the process made the teacup drop to the floor." A vein visibly bulged on her happy face. "Sit down, Alice, for some breakfast."

I complied and sat next to Oz, staring at the glass vase sitting on the center of the table. It was filled with some little rocks that sunk to the bottom of the water, through which a bunch of flowers were grasped by their stems. "Here, Alice," Sharon told me, placing a teacup and a plate with a piece of bread on it in front of me. "Eat up! We're going to hunt for Chains today!"

...Eat...what? THAT PIECE OF BREAD? Nothing else?

"In broad daylight?" Oz asked incredulously. "Doesn't that seem kind of…_stupid?_ I mean, I thought that this was a secret organization."

"It's true that suspicious people – that could be contractors – usually come out at night," Seaweed Head said. "But the issue is that we sleep at night. And we cannot sleep and hunt down Chains at the same time."

Even to me, someone who didn't understand the full logic of finding Chains at night, thought that this sounded…dumb, to say the least. Oz smiled weakly, searching desperately for a reply that wouldn't sound insulting. "Oh…right…"

I picked up my piece of bread and munched on it. It didn't taste half as good as meat.

"How is it?" Sharon asked me expectantly.

I was about to say "Horribly plain" when the scene of Sharon hitting the Clown with her fan flashed before my eyes. "It's the most delicious thing I've had in my whole life," I revised, and Oz cleared his throat, looking away. He knew I was fibbing, but Sharon clearly didn't.

"Wonderful!" she said, clasping her hands together in pleasure. "I'm glad you like it so much, Miss Alice!" Her eyes glittered as she grabbed her fan. "Oh, I can't wait to go on a Chain hunt with you and Mr. Oz. I can smell my next paycheck nearby!"

"What does that mean?" I asked, swallowing.

She beamed at me and said slowly and sweetly, "It means that my money is going to come to me in the form of a defeated Chain!"

I blinked at her, still confused. What, she would kill a Chain with that fan of hers and the monster would somehow transform into a whirlwind of money? Not wanting to seem clueless compared to everyone else, though, I nodded like I understood, chewing on the bread.

In just a few minutes after I finished eating and drinking some kind of drink that was incredibly bitter, we were all standing outside, shoulder-to-shoulder. For a moment we didn't do anything...and after a few moments, we _still _didn't do anything. I shifted, impatient. "What are we doing?" I finally asked.

"Deciding where to go," the Clown said, completely recovered from the blow he took to the head.

"You mean we don't even have any idea where a contractor could be?" Oz questioned from beside me, becoming increasingly uneasy. "Why did you take this job if it's so…I don't know, chancy?"

"Don't you agree that justice is a rather nice thing?" Sharon said from my other side, sounding extremely peaceful.

Oz nodded hesitantly. "But –"

"Well, that and it pays well," she interrupted. "_Really _well."

"That reminds me," he replied. "Isn't this a dangerous job? I mean, you could just _die._ Is the money really worth that much?"

The Clown, waving his sleeves around like the idiot that he was, answered, "Oh, but we won't die!"

Oz glanced at me, and I shrugged. They had survived up until this point. And it wasn't like I had another choice other than to go with them: otherwise, I would get shipped back to the Abyss. Somehow.

"Hey, can't the Stupid Rabbit tell us where to go?" Seaweed Head suddenly suggested, putting some rolled-up white paper thing to the corner of his mouth. "I mean, she's been in the Abyss. Shouldn't she know the presence of a Chain by heart?"

I grimaced at him as he lifted a little glittering silver box to the rolled-paper, flicking it and causing a flame to appear. I was intrigued, but I wasn't about to show it. "For your information, for Chains to get and _stay _on Earth is an achievement in itself," I told him. "It wouldn't be a problem for them to disguise themselves if they were able to find a contractor."

He glared at me in return while the revealed end of his paper smoked from the fire he lit it with. "You want to fight, Stupid Rabbit? I'll seal your powers right now and send you to the depths of the Abyss."

I could feel my muscles tensing, prepared for a fight. And it probably would have followed, too, if Oz didn't suddenly grab my arm and drag me backward. He laughed nervously. "Let's get going, shall we?" I was about to protest when he continued, "Let's start in the marketplace. You wanted meat, didn't you, Alice?"

_Meat._ Even though I was perfectly aware that this was just a way of distracting me from Seaweed Head's challenge, the thought of real food ate up my thoughts to pummel his face in. "Let's go!" I agreed, and off we were.


	25. Girlfriend

Hey.

**Lacie-Abyss**: Even though you didn't comment on my last chapter, you asked a question for the one before it and I'm sorry; I totally forgot to answer it in the last chapter! D: And anyways, I'm also sorry that I can't give you my opinion on that anymore since I just read the translation for Retrace 70 and my head exploded. If it were before I read it though, I would have guessed Jack, because the memories were all about explaining how he was a total troll the entire time. :)

**Will of The Abyss-AlicexOz**: Thanks; I'll definitely try to update more except that's difficult since my head JUST EXPLODED FROM RETRACE 70 and I'll probably sit around stunned with half-chewed food stuck in my mouth while eating because I keep thinking about it. And I'll definitely check out your story and leave a review for you! =3

**peppermint twertle**: First off, I heart your name. ...Anyways. That would make an awesome scene! I'll think about it...or something like it...

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><p>Oz<p>

The marketplace, like usual, was bustling with activity. Stand owners were shamelessly screaming out into the street, trying to attract attention in order to sell whatever goods they had. Alice's eyes were shining as she glanced around, trying to find – inevitably – meat.

I found it cute the way she darted from stand to stand, trying to find someone who was frying pork or chicken, etc. Pure happiness was scribbled all over her face. "What's with the Stupid Rabbit?" Gil asked me.

I laughed. "She's just being Alice."

We followed her around as she zipped around like a child hyped up on sugar. Even though we were supposed to be on a Chain hunt, it was hard to ignore the lively mood that surrounded me.

Alice had found her target, and her eyes widened as the stand owner seemed to start his own barbeque. "You sure have a nice eye, there, miss," he said to Alice as she watched him simultaneously flip a bunch of kabobs over. "This beef was shipped straight from the Americas; it's extremely high-quality."

"Ooooh!" Alice replied, even though I doubted she even understood what he was talking about. She whirled her head to look at Gil and I, her face lightened up. "Oz! Is this good?"

I stood next to her. It wasn't like I was some sort of meat expert…but it seemed like no matter what I told her, she would want to eat it anyway. "We're _not _getting any," Gil said before I could make up a reply. "We're not here to have fun."

Alice grimaced at him. She then looked at me, clasping her hands together. "_Please_, Oz?"

Her eyes were positively glimmering. So…cute…

"We're here on a mission!" Gil told us sharply. "Hurry up!"

"Shut up!" Alice snapped, glaring at him. "I'm hungry! How do expect us to work when we're hungry?"

"Quit faking!" Gil hollered right back. "You just ate!"

"I ate a piece of bread!"

"Exactly!"

"_A piece of bread!_"

"Aw, don't they get along so well?" Break chuckled. I shivered before turning to the stand owner, grabbing a hamburger, and then jamming it into Alice's mouth. Things instantly settled down.

"May we proceed?" Gil asked, irritated that I had given into Alice's greed for food. Alice ignored him and munched happily on her food. "We want to get at least one Chain today, don't we?"

We walked along the road, a little less tense this time since Alice's hunger had been (temporarily) eased. After a few minutes, though, her impatience took over. "When are we going to _do _something?" she sneered. "I thought we were out here for _work._"

"Well, you can't expect us to simply crash into a monster," Gil muttered.

"It takes some time," Sharon told us. "Chains keep undercover pretty well. Sometimes we can search for a whole day and nothing comes up."

Alice grunted in annoyance, but she didn't push it any further. "Do you always just search the same area over and over again?" I asked. "If you did that, would there be any Chains left at all?"

Break laughed. I didn't understand what was so funny. "We're the agents stationed in Japan," he explained. "And lucky for you, we just happened to be camping out in that mansion when you came back from the Abyss. We usually fly around the country every week or so to keep every area of the country consistent in the amount of Abyss exposure."

"So…basically Pandora is spread throughout the whole world. And we're just the ones in Japan."

"Oh, you're so smart!" he said, beaming and ruffling my hair. My spine prickled uncomfortably. Someone...help...me...

Alice came to my rescue. She glared at him and smacked his hand from my head, none too gently. "Keep your hands off my servant!" she snarled, looping her arms around my neck from behind and yanking me backwards. "You'll taint him and make him less useful!"

"So mean!" Break complained, even though his smile hadn't disappeared. "I'm one of the best workers of Pandora!"

Alice didn't relent; she released my neck but proceeded to possessively grab my right arm as we walked down the streets. I cleared my throat, feeling my face and ears heat up. Although she had saved me from the horror of Break, did she really have to do that?

As the five of us strolled along, shoulder-to-shoulder, I wondered how we would ever find a monster in such a crowded place. It didn't seem possible in the least, especially since it was extremely hard to concentrate with all of these people shoving random goods in our faces in attempts to sell them to us…

…_And _with Alice gripping my arm like…like…like a couple on a date.

"Are you okay, Oz?" Gil asked me suddenly. "Your face looks really red."

I frantically nodded in response, but it didn't help. Why did he have to bring it up…? Now that I was more aware of it, I could feel steam practically rising from my head. "N-no, I'm fine," I stammered.

"You look like you're getting sick," Sharon said, concerned. "It's not worth it to be that nervous for a Chain hunt, you know."

"I'm not!" I protested. "It...it's nothing, r-really."

"What a cute girl!" an elderly lady said as she approached us, staring at Alice with a broken-toothed smile. "Would you like to buy a bow for your hair, miss?"

I glanced at the ribbons that she held in her basket. "No, thank you," I answered for Alice. I was the one managing _our _budget.

"What are those?" Alice asked curiously, though, completely disregarding my response.

"What an innocent girl!" the lady replied joyfully. "You put these in your hair! It makes you look pretty!"

Alice's nose wrinkled, as if she remembered the same thing that popped in my head: our discussion about the importance of image in society. "Oh. That's okay. I don't want it."

"I'll take them all!" Sharon suddenly interrupted, leaping forward and grasping the old woman's wrinkled and frail hands in hers. "How much for them?"

While Sharon was busy counting out money in bundles, the old lady beamed at me. "You got a mighty pretty girlfriend there."

Huh? _Me_? What girlfriend? "Oh, I know, right!" Sharon agreed, standing beside her and smiling. "Don't they match so perfectly?"

Alice tugged on my arm, still holding onto it. "What's a 'girlfriend', Oz?" she asked, looking up at me.

"Oh, so cute!" the old lady said, reaching forward to pat our shoulders. "Young love these days...it's so beautiful..."

"Isn't it?" Sharon commented, her eyes sparkling. Gil and Break had backed away a few steps.

Wha-? What was she even talking about? What was with these two women? And why were they looking at Alice and I like -

"WAIT!" I exclaimed, the reality of it suddenly smacking me in the face. "Don't jump to conclusions like that! Alice and I are just normal, everyday friends; there's no reason for you to -"

"'Just friends'?" Alice intervened. "What do you mean by that?"

She was _not _helping the situation at all. "Alice!" I hissed. "Let me take care of this!"

"But you're my _manservant_, too!" she hissed right back.

"Those two quarrel so much," Sharon conversed with the old lady. "But it's never anything serious."

She hadn't even known us for _nearly _long enough to say that! "Let's get back to work!" Break hurriedly said. I was obliged to follow him as we scurried off, circumventing the old lady as she and Sharon shared an extremely long series of goodbyes.

I was still blushing furiously. Gee, Sharon just had to introduce Alice and I as a couple, didn't she? I looked at Alice, who was obliviously clinging to my arm. "Ah." She suddenly remembered something. "What was that 'girlfriend' thing that they were talking about?"

I thought I was going to faint. It had barely been an hour since I had woken up and I was already completely tired. "It's nothing you need to concern yourself about!" I quickly said.

She frowned. "Is it something bad?"

I paused before shaking my head. "Not necessarily..."

Her expression turned indignant. "Then, why can't you explain it to me? _You said you would be my teacher!_"

Let's just make it clear beforehand that her whining is perfectly irresistible. I scratched my head with my free arm. "Well..."

"_Please__?_"

Why not? "Remember when I told you about applying the word 'cute' to a girl? When we were back in the Abyss? And about..._love_ and that stuff?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

"When a boy and a girl love each other, they usually become boyfriend and girlfriend first. You can think of it like a status." ...I couldn't believe I was actually explaining this...

She nodded, her face determined for some reason. "Alright, then. In that case, I'll become Oz's girlfriend!"

"_EH?_" I shouted. "W-Why? Why would you do that?"

She stared at me calmly before firing off a whole analysis. "Well, when you were explaining love to me, you said that it was special kind of emotion, right? And you gave the impression that it was usually a good and happy thing. And, you said that when a boy and girl love each other, they spend a lot of time together. Technically, we've spent ten years together. It seems that that's a long time from your reaction to how much time passed since we entered the Abyss. And, you said that they cared about each other. I care a lot about you."

My head spun. I didn't even know anything anymore. "I mean, without you, I wouldn't know anything about Earth or know what meat tasted like!" she continued, making me want to facepalm myself. "So of course I care about you! And, you wouldn't have followed me into the Abyss if you didn't care a lot about me, right? So the feeling is mutual! Everything matches up with what you told me!"

In other words, I had dug my own grave. "Listen, Alice, I can't tell you about the concept of love in words," I said. "You'd have to actually experience it."

"But - "

"How about we just focus on getting your memories back first?" I suggested. "Maybe you've already experienced something like it before. Then you'd understand it better."

She hesitated, seeming a little dejected. I didn't like that expression. "Fine," she agreed, causing relief to fill my veins. She didn't release my arm, though.

And I didn't tell her to, either.

Because for some reason...I didn't want her to.

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><p>Gee, Oz, way to be hypocritical. -.-"<p> 


	26. Car with Wings

Please review!

**ChocolateSunshine500**: Thank you very much! I'm glad you liked it since I just started upping the incidences between the two of them. It's rather difficult for me since this is actually my first time writing an actual romance, but trying to make it realistic. Thank you for reading and reviewing! You get...cake! Any imaginary cake you want. Just picture something pretty. *waves magic fingers* ...*cake appears*

**Will of The Abyss-AlicexOz**: Hallo there! Thank you for reading and reviewing! And I will try to find some Pocky pronto, because my PH-obsessed brain seems to still be floating around in a dream-like state. For being one of the two to review the last chapter, you also get cake! It's any type you want. Just imagine whatever you want. *waves magic fingers* ...*cake appears*

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><p>Alice<p>

The day ended uneventfully. We failed to track down any Chains, or contractors for that matter, and were forced to return to the mansion.

"Do you always just waste time on useless searches like this?" I asked as we sat in the living room. I grabbed a pillow and hugged it. "That was as boring as when I was in the Abyss with no other Chains to fight. And a waste of time, now that time applies to me."

"Shut up," Seaweed Head told me as he sat down on the sofa and turned on the television using the remote (which I wish I knew how to use). "Feel grateful that we didn't get into any fights. It means that we're doing our job correctly and less work for you."

I grimaced at him, but didn't respond. Less work for us…maybe it was a good thing for him since it meant less life-threatening situations, but for me it was just a few less memories that I wanted back.

"We'll head to Osaka tomorrow, then," Sharon told us. "It's been calm around here for a generous amount of days. We can move on."

"What's Osaka?" I asked her.

"It's a place, Miss Alice!" she explained happily. "We're going there next to find some Chains!"

"There's been a recent increase in unexplained deaths there lately," Seaweed Head added. "Possibly the effect of a Chain feeding on the humans."

"So we're going to Osaka?" Oz asked as he dropped to a seat next to me. "When?"

"Tomorrow," Sharon said. "Isn't that right, Break? You've got the plane tickets ready and everything?"

Clearly, whatever these 'plane tickets' were, the Clown hadn't gotten them prepared. He backed away a few steps. "Of course, Sharon. I'm going right…now!" I had never seen the Clown seem so adept at movement as he did when he darted out of the room right then.

Sharon smiled sweetly, but it sent shivers throughout my skin. "I can always count on Break to get things done for me."

I cleared my throat, feeling rather uncomfortable in the presence of her evil aura. "Um, what's a plane ticket?" I asked.

For some reason Sharon found this adorable or something, because she rushed forward at me and gripped each of my cheeks with her hands like pincers. "Oh, you're so _cute_!" she exclaimed. It hurt…

"A plane is like a car," Oz explained to me while covertly leaning his body at an angle so that his head was blocking Sharon from damaging my face any further. Her arms instantly dropped. "Except it's faster and it can fly."

I thought for a moment, imagining a small, red car. A pair of feathered, pure white wings suddenly sprouted from its top. Planes were cool! "I want to go on a plane!" I decided.

Oz reverted back to his original position and grinned at me. "Yup! It'll be fun!"

I felt my shoulders sag with disappointment. "_That…_is a plane?" I said with dismay.

We were inside what Oz told me was called an airport, staring out a wall of glass and down at the ground. I looked at what Oz was pointing at. It was some kind of shining white body with two arms spread out from its sides and a fin-like object attached to its rear. Not what I imagined…at all…

"Yep!" Oz said. It was only the two of us at the window; Seaweed Head, Sharon, and the Clown were off to get the tickets or something. "Isn't it cool?"

I shrugged. Not really…

"Don't worry," he told me, as if sensing my disappointment. "You'll like it."

Yeah, right. That morning, Sharon had pounded on our door before the sun had even risen. I, who had just begun to getting used to the habits of sleeping when the moon was up and waking when the sun was up, had tasted my first batch of exhaustion. I hadn't slept enough. Sharon had dragged Oz and I into a car, and from there Seaweed Head took the car to this gigantic "airport".

It was not a pleasant journey.

I stifled a yawn. Even now, the sun had barely penetrated the darkness that I had woken up to. Oz was perfectly awake, bright-eyed and ready for pretty much anything. His eyes were sparkling and the flowers were spinning around him in frenzies.

"We're back!" the Clown exclaimed as he walked toward us with Sharon and Seaweed Head. "We're going to be boarding in about half an hour. What should we do until then?"

"Eat," I said automatically.

Seaweed Head snorted. I glared at him. "What?" he demanded at my expression. "Don't tell me that you don't notice your own gluttonous habits. Asking for food every other second. Is your stomach a bottomless pit?"

I bristled. Why this little – "I'm just hungry!" I protested. "_Sorry _if I'm starting to act like a human!"

"Calm down," Oz told me. "We'll get some food, okay?"

"And you, too!" Seaweed Head said, stabbing a finger in Oz's face. "You can't simply give into whatever is demanded of you! You aren't actually her servant!"

"Hey, don't involve him into this!" I snapped, shoving his arm away from in front of Oz's eyes. "Oz is just trying to make things easier for me, just as we promised!"

"Quit acting like you're queen of the world!" he retorted. "You're just an annoying rabbit!"

"_You're _the annoying one! What, you just want me to starve to death?"

"That would be rather nice, yes."

I could feel my blood beginning to boil. "_You Seaweed –_"

"Calm down!" Oz said, quickly grabbing me around the waist right as I was about to attack Seaweed Head. "We're in a public area! Both of you will get us in trouble!"

"He just said that he would like to see me die!" I protested, flailing my arms around, trying and failing to free myself. "I'm going to teach him never to mess with the Black Rabbit of the Abyss!"

I smacked Oz in the face with one of my arms by accident, and I was instantly freed. "Mr. Oz!" Sharon gasped, rushing over. I turned to see Oz crouched on the floor, his head downward. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he said, his voice slightly muffled. "I'm fine."

Worry spread throughout my body. Um…I hope I didn't hit him too hard…I sat on the floor and hugged my knees to my chest. "Oz? Are you sure you're okay?"

He lifted his head, covering his cheek with one hand. He smiled. "Of course!" He reached out with his other arm and patted my head. "Don't talk to me with that kind of worried tone. It makes me feel bad."

Oz's skin was warm…even through a thick layer of hair I could feel it.

The plane was filled with people. Sharon told us where to sit. We were spread all around the plane, but she had somehow gotten Oz and I next to each other next to a window. I peered out of it while we were still on the ground.

"You can see the clouds when we start flying," Oz told me from my right. "You'll like it."

Voices came and went, but I concentrated on staring out the window. Some people wearing bright orange vests were walking around on the ground. Hmm…I wonder what they were doing?

Suddenly, the plane began to shake. "Eek!" I squealed, and instinctively grabbed onto Oz's arm. "What's that? What's going on?"

He laughed. "The pilot is just starting to prepare the plane for flying. It's perfectly normal. Then again, I don't see you getting scared by many things."

I felt warmness rise to my face. "Well, it's not like I know what's normal and what's not on a plane," I muttered, but he just laughed again.

The plane started moving forward. I watched the surroundings through the window, and the green grass beside the road we were on was left behind. The rumbling became incredibly loud and irritating, when suddenly…it just disappeared.

From my view of the ground, I realized that everything I was observing was dropping below us. "Eh?" I exclaimed, pressing my hands to the glass. "What's going on?"

"We've taken off!" Oz told me. "Soon we'll be above the clouds. And why isn't your seatbelt on when the captain clearly told you to have it fastened? Were you paying attention to the announcements?"

Clearly, I wasn't. He reached over to some kind of strands of fabric attached to some clips or whatever and buckled something across my waist. "What's this?" I asked, poking at it.

"It's a seatbelt. Keeps you bound to the seat enough so that if we hit some turbulence, you won't go flying from your chair and get hurt."

I didn't bother asking what turbulence was. It didn't sound good if it could fling me from my seat and make me crash into something.

I yawned as some fluffy white bits of cloud tickled the window. "Not awake?" Oz asked me.

I shook my head. "I don't get why we had to get up so early…yesterday it was okay."

He lifted the bar that split our seats. My eyes widened. I didn't know he could do that! He chuckled at my expression before setting a pillow on his lap and patting it. "It'll be around an hour until we get to Osaka," he told me. "Until then, you can sleep if you want."

I paused for a moment. He would be staying awake the whole time… "No," I said coolly. "If even my manservant can keep his head up, then I –"

Oz planted one hand on the other side of my head and shoved it down onto the pillow. "Sleep," he told me, smiling down at me. "As far as we can expect from Sharon and the others, we're probably going to be Chain hunting as soon as we get there. Rest up."

I sighed, but gave in and shut my eyes. Behind that happy expression of his must have been some kind of mastermind. Otherwise, how could a sleep on a moving vehicle in a cramped space be so comfortable?


	27. Two

Whoa. Sorry guys. I have been MIA for _waaay _too long.

If you would like to know what I had been doing...well, school, for one thing. Also, in order to come here I ditched another fanfiction website. If you don't know me, I feel guilty easily. I went back there and started over.

And of course I felt guilty for abandoning you guys. My inbox has been filled with reviews pleading for updates, and so I wanted to do this for you. Sorry.

Hope you enjoy!

* * *

><p>Oz<p>

"What's this? What's that? _Oooh_ that looks cool! Oz! Oz! _What's that!_"

Alice…was so energetic.

_Too _energetic, in fact. I watched as she zipped around the streets, fascinated by every single thing that came into her sight. There was absolutely no _way _that she could have that much energy.

I ruffled my hair, sighing and half-smiling. What could I do about it?

We were in Osaka; in fact, we had just left the airport. Alice slept the entire trip, and when I had to wake her up after landing, she nearly hit me in the face - again.

"Look, look!" she exclaimed now, as we walked the city streets of Osaka. "What's –"

"Shut up, Stupid Rabbit," Gil interrupted, pulling none-too-gently on one of her braids. "You're too loud."

"_You shut up!_" Alice shot right back, not even pausing to think.

"Let's just get to our house for now, yes?" Sharon said. "We'll be coming back here at night. We'll have plenty of time to see everything then."

I raised an eyebrow at this. "I thought you said we didn't hunt for Chains at night. You know…since we _sleep then._"

"Change of plans," Gil said briefly, ignoring Alice as she leapt up and down, calling him "Seaweed Head" over and over again while her hair leapt up and down with her. So cute…

"Where're we going?" Alice asked. Then, without breaking stride, she continued jumping in the view of Gil. "Seaweed Head! Seaweed Head! Seaweed Head! Gilbert is a Seaweed Head!"

"Not very far," Sharon answered. "We'll take a taxi to where the house is."

"Do you own a house _everywhere_ in Japan?" I asked skeptically.

Break laughed his creepy laugh. "Pretty much! You can't expect us to rent a hotel room every week, do you?"

Well, that was exactly what I was thinking. But now that I actually pondered it, I guess it made sense if we had our own lodging, since, apparently, Pandora moved around their respective "lands" on a normal basis. I glanced around at the bustling city, complete with neighboring skyscrapers and the crowd you'd expect in any city. _Yeah, _I thought. Certainly wouldn't want to have to deal with this kind of activity whenever I tried to sleep in a hotel.

"This…is _not _a house."

I stared up at the monstrosity that we had arrived at. It wasn't a house at all…it was even huger than the mansion I had moved into a few day-okay, ten years ago. Decked out in a light shade of peach, it was probably three stories and took up a whole block in the neighborhood. It had a blue-shingled roof and the windows all had curtains drawn.

"Of course it is!" Break assured me. "Look. It has a roof and everything!"

I looked at him. He knew that wasn't what I was implying. "Alright, into the house we go!" Gil demanded, getting irritated at Alice's constant chirping of "Seaweed Head".

"Oz!" Alice said, finally getting tired of teasing. "I want to see more of the city!"

"Later," I promised, patting her head like I would to a dog. "Let's just get some rest right now."

She shook her head. "I'm not tired."

Oh. That's right. She slept the whole way. Whoops.

"Is it okay if I take her out?" I asked the others.

Gil looked at me as if I were crazy for wanting to spend more time with her. Sharon clasped her hands together. "Of course you may!" she replied. "Just make sure to be back before dark!"

"You never know what may come out at night," Break sang. Great.

* * *

><p>"It's really pretty here," Alice said as we walked the streets.<p>

I nodded in agreement. "It sure is." I glanced at her, taking in her carefree attitude, even though we had come here with a rather scary job. "Alice, aren't you scared of fighting a Chain?"

She shrugged. "I'm B-Rabbit. There's nothing to be afraid of."

As much as I admired her courage..."But Alice, have you recovered all of your strength yet?"

She looked at me, raising an eyebrow. "Oz, there's nothing to worry about. Strength or no strength, I'm still the same Chain as I was in the Abyss. The name is enough to make one tremble."

...Okay. I didn't reply. There was nothing I could do about it anyway. I was just being paranoid; paranoid that maybe Break's last phrase to us before we left meant something. Still, Alice wasn't in top condition yet. There's no way she could have recovered all of her energy back in such a short time. If she got hurt...

That's when it hit me. I hadn't seen any Chains except for the one that attacked us in the Abyss. I didn't even know what Alice looked like in her Chain form.

"Ooh, this looks cool!" Alice exclaimed, jolting me from my thoughts. She was standing at a stall that sold...meat. She thought meat looked 'cool'.

Moments later, we continued our stroll. This time, Alice was munching on a drumstick. "Can we go back?" I asked, rather exhausted. I glanced at the sky. "It's getting dark, too. We should get Gil and the others -"

Alice shook her head. "I want to walk some more!"

I couldn't reject her desires. At all.

Of course, nothing good could happen when we were staying out later than usual. Even if it was the city, certain areas were abandoned and devoid of any people. And Alice just happened to drag us into one of those areas.

"Alice," I said, uneasy as I glanced around at the shadows that were quickly forming. "I think we should go back."

"Why? I want to explore some more!"

She sounded too excited...much too excited for where we were. It was completely...deserted. The atmosphere wasn't good, no matter how I looked at it.

"Ali-"

Something crashed into the ground beside me. I jumped in horror upon seeing the tail that lay beside me.

Yes. A tail.

Like a snake's. Only, it was way too big to belong to any snake I knew.

I backed up in fear, my heart stopping before beating erratically. "Stand back, Oz," Alice told me in a low growl. "No matter what you do, don't say anything."

...What-WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT? It looked like some kind of mutant creature that had been slapped together by scientists using the body parts of a snake and bear...and then increased in size by like, 100.

"Don't agitate it," Alice continued quietly but firmly. "Chains are worse when they're angered at the very beginning of a fight."

This...was a Chain? Honestly? I mean, I get the baby-spider thing was just as bad, but...

A sharp item whizzed over my head, grazing my hair. "Holy fudge, Alice!" I cried. "Watch it!"

She spared me a glance, but looked too irritated to bother with me. In a single hand was a gigantic scythe that had just materialized out of thin air - and nearly decapitated me. She faced the Chain.

"I...will..._murder_...you!" she hissed, each word accompanied with a violent swing of her weapon. The Chain barely dodged the glinting blade. It was able to because it got lucky.

Alice was not joking.

"Can't we just run?" I shouted the exact moment a disgusting, squishing noise met my ears.

Alice had made a mark.

And I felt like throwing up.

I guess Chains aren't like most animals here - when Earth creatures feel they have met their match, they usually run away with tails behind their hind legs. If they have tails...or hind legs, for that matter.

Because the moment Alice had slashed that thing's stomach open, hell broke loose.

Giant teeth glinted and snarls filled the air. Gleaming globs of saliva (at least...I hope it was saliva) flew from the Chain's mouth as it lunged angrily for Alice. I winced, my muscles tensing up each time the Chain snapped at her. She wouldn't get hurt...she wouldn't...

I was right. After all, she wasn't crowned most powerful Chain of the Abyss by pure luck. She easily leaped out of the way of each attack, all the while swinging the scythe.

"What a weakling," she muttered. "For wasting my time, you better have one of my memories!"

With that epic phrase, she lifted the scythe high above her head and brought its sharp tip down upon the Chain's head.

I didn't watch. I covered my eyes in fear of losing the meal in my stomach.

After a few moments, I peeked through my fingers to find that all traces of the monster had disappeared. Alice stood in her spot, the scythe having vanished as well.

"Alice?" I squeaked, still stunned - and, I admit, scared - from the sudden encounter.

She didn't respond. I cautiously approached her. Her face was frozen in a collected expression as she reached forward to her feet to something that looked like a shard of silver glass.

"What's that?" I asked. I watched as she set her fingers on its surface - and then my vision was covered with white light.

* * *

><p>"Alice! Alice!"<p>

I opened my eyes to find myself in an alien environment. At least, at first. It didn't take long for me to remember that this was the same garden where I had seen her first memory.

So I guess that glass piece...was a physical manifestation of a memory?

The sunlight was unnaturally bright, making everything white-washed. I blinked for a moment before trying to find where the voice came from. A little girl who looked exactly like Alice darted into view.

When I say exactly like Alice, I mean _exactly_ - at least, if Alice dyed her hair white.

My eyes followed her as she ran straight to the actual Alice - what did I call her in her other memory? Right. Little Alice. She turned around at her name and smiled upon seeing the other girl.

"Alice" was her reply.

Wait...what? So not only were these two practically identical twins - they had the same name? I guessed that this girl was her sister. Otherwise, why would they share the same face? And...name, apparently? Great parenting, by the way.

Since I was already getting confused, I recalled what Alice told me about her sister: she was the Abyss. So maybe if I just combined "Alice" with "Abyss" and still make it have the same pronunciation -

Alyss. Goodie. If that was actually her name, that would be amazing.

"Alice, let's go to the city today!" Alyss said brightly. I had to squint when I looked at her. The sun made it bright enough as it was, but with her snow-princess-like appearance, I could barely even keep her in my sights without going blind.

Little Alice shook her head. "Jack said we can't leave without his permission."

Jack...wasn't he that guy in the previous memory? Remembering him made me uneasy. Who exactly was he? If he appeared again in this memory, would he be able to see me again?

"Then let's ask Jack!" was the response. "We've been good girls, haven't we? And he promised us that we'd be able to leave the garden soon!"

Little Alice grinned along with her sister. "He did, didn't he? Then, let's go and ask him!"

The two of them turned to the large manor that led to the garden, holding their dresses with one hand so that they could run and holding each other's hands with the other palm. I quickly followed them.

Good thing I did. The manor was filled with twisting halls like some kind of labyrinth. If I hadn't been following them, I wouldn't have known if I was going in a complete circle. I would have been trapped.

The pair of sisters seemed to know exactly where they were going. Each step was confident and skilled. Turn after turn, they finally arrived at a pair of elegant, towering doors. Alyss stepped forward and knocked.

"Who is it?" came a rather irritated voice.

Being naive children, I don't think they even noticed the tone. "It's us!" Alyss said excitedly. "Can we come in?"

One door swung inward, revealing him. Jack. I swallowed nervously, but he didn't seem to notice the uninvited individual watching this memory.

"Come in," he said, turning and walking inside. I hurriedly stepped inside after Little Alice and Alyss.

The room was expansive. Two walls were lined with bookshelves that were filled with thick books. A desk sat in front of another wall, parchments neatly arranged on its surface. "Sit," he ordered. Without hesitation, the two girls leaped onto the single sofa in the room.

I seated myself next to Little Alice. Of course, she couldn't sense my presence. Since none of them were saying anything, it gave me time to stare at her.

She was completely like a modern-day girl. The way she sat as if she was curious about everything...she was even swinging her legs, and her feet couldn't reach the carpet on the ground. Her eyes were sparkling with anticipation.

Alyss, unable to hold it in any longer, said, "Jack, can Alice and I visit the city today?"

Jack turned to look at both of them. He hadn't been in a good mood in the first place, so now he was definitely not amused. "What?"

"Well, it's just that we've been here all this time, and-"

"_No._ Absolutely not. Is that all you have come to ask me?"

Whoa. Why was he so against this?

"But why?" Little Alice piped up. "We haven't seen anything except the manor and the garden. When will you take us to the city like you promised?"

"You aren't going to the city." His statement wasn't loud, but it made its point. Both of the siblings stiffened in response. Even I, who he wasn't even talking to, shifted uncomfortably. "Do you understand?"

"Why?" Alyss protested. It was the wrong thing to do.

"You simply aren't!" Jack raised his voice and gritted his teeth. "Don't you dare take a single step outside this manor, or outside the garden! You two are to stay here!"

It was deadly silent. He was angry. Really angry, and for reasons I wouldn't understand. Did the sisters even understand?

Little Alice got to her feet. I thought that maybe she would cry in disappointment - which was what Alyss was doing next to her. Maybe she would throw a tantrum; she could whine or yell.

She didn't.

"Let's go," Little Alice said coolly, grabbing her sister's hand and pulling Alyss to her feet. "Since Jack doesn't want us leaving, we won't."

Without another word to Jack, the two of them made a quick exit.

Everything went white.


	28. Heat

Oh. My. Gosh.

Have you guys read Retrace 75? T-T My heart just got broken...

My poor baby...Alice...

And please review. Seriously.

* * *

><p>Alice<p>

My head hurt.

I didn't want to open my eyes, but I did. Slowly.

"Oh, the Stupid Rabbit's awake."

Seaweed Head.

"What…did you just call me?" When I spoke, my voice sounded hoarse. Not exactly the intimidation technique I was heading for.

"Alice!"

A moment after I heard the cheerful voice, a body crashed straight into me, hugging me with so much strength that I could feel my bones straining. "O-Oz," I choked out.

"I was so worried!" he exclaimed, ignoring me and gripping me harder. A moment later, he released me and grabbed my by the shoulders to look at me. "Are you feeling okay?"

"What…happened?" I asked slowly, trying to remember the past events.

"We met that Chain a day ago," Oz informed me. "After getting your memory back, you didn't wake up...until now..."

Memory…images of my sister and the man named Jack flashed through my mind, sending my head through a fresh wave of pain. That's right…I had gotten a memory back.

"Oz carried you back like a princess!" came Sharon's voice as she twirled past the doorway. "It was so beautiful!"

What's a 'princess'?

"Sharon…" Oz mumbled, sounding embarrassed.

"Anyways," Seaweed Head said, clearing his throat. "Now that you took care of a Chain, I guess you have _some _value to Pandora."

I glared at him, but he pretended not to notice. What a -

"Money," Oz said firmly, holding out his hand toward Seaweed Head.

Seaweed Head raised an eyebrow. I quickly scrambled next to Oz, replicating his hand motion. "Money," I said.

Seaweed Head snorted, crossing his arms. "Yeah...no way."

"But we got rid of that Chain on our own!" Oz snapped. "Isn't that your job? If you're being paid to do that, and we're a part of Pandora, we should get our pay." He looked at me in determination. "Isn't that right, Alice?"

I nodded. "Yeah!"

I barely heard Sharon squeal before she rammed into me and pinched at my cheeks. It was painful. "You are _too _cute!" she exclaimed while tearing my face off.

"Help...me," I coughed out.

"I think that's enough," Oz said nervously. "Alice just woke up. I think she's still a little dazed from the Chain fight."

Not really...it wasn't like I didn't fight Chains on a normal basis over in the Abyss. But seeing as how Oz was trying to get me out of Sharon's clutches, I didn't have a choice but to go along with it.

"Right," I said. "My head hurts."

That part was true, at least.

"Oh, no!" Sharon shouted. I winced. "Your head hurts? Hold on, I have some pain-killers in the kitchen." With that, she scurried out of the room.

"What are 'pain-killers'?" I asked.

I heard Seaweed Head sigh impatiently at my cluelessness, but I decided to ignore him. I wouldn't give him the pleasure of knowing I cared about what his useless opinion was, especially since so much had happened in the past day that I didn't want to waste energy dealing with him.

"You swallow them and it makes pain go away," Oz explained to me.

Hmm...Earth even has things for that?

"Her stupidity is mind-boggling," Seaweed Head muttered.

"What did you just say?" I demanded, leaping to my feet. It made my head spin.

"I said your 'stupidity is mind-boggling'," he repeated loudly.

Alright...as much as I wanted to hold back...this person was asking for a beating! I lunged toward him to give him a piece of my mind when I felt a pair of arms holding me back from around the waist.

Again. My human form is weak, so I couldn't break away.

"Whoa, there," Oz told me, his voice extremely close to my ear. I could feel his breath brushing against my skin. "Don't attack the person that's supposed to give us money."

My arms suddenly dropped from reaching for Seaweed Head as I felt my face beginning to heat up. My ear was tingling, even though Oz had stopped talking.

What was going on?

Seaweed Head smirked. "What? The stupid rabbit that bragged about being 'the most powerful Chain' can't escape a teenage boy?"

Ha. He was _definitely _asking for a beating.

"_Let go of me!_" I screamed, flailing my arms. "I'm going to _kill _this Seaweed Head!"

Oz, of course, wasn't going to change his mind that easily and just held on to my waist even tighter. "What's going on in here?" I heard Sharon exclaim near the door.

"This person is trying to kill me," Seaweed Head said, pointing calmly at me. "Or rather...this _thing, _since I don't think you're really a human."

How dare he! "I'm part human!" I snapped. "Don't look down on me!"

"Help me!" Oz demanded as I struggled against him.

"Gilbert, I think it's better if you leave," Sharon said calmly. "Good for all of our blood pressures."

Seaweed Head sighed, rubbing his temple. Was he seriously going to listen and leave? "Fine. Just get the stupid rabbit to shut up."

He walked to the door. "_Are you a coward?"_ I screamed after him. How could he just walk away from this? "_Running away, are you?"_

"Alice!" Oz said in a begging voice. "Please, stop!"

"_And what kind of a manservant are you?_" I turned my head as much as I could to look at Oz. "_I told you to let go of me! Why are you not following orders?_"

Seaweed Head stopped at the doorway, turning around to stare at me in contempt. "Please sedate that thing," he told Sharon before leaving the room.

* * *

><p>"This is why I told you to stop," Oz told me.<p>

I grumbled for a moment. I didn't want to admit it, but maybe I shouldn't have been so intent on strangling Seaweed Head. My headache had tripled in the process.

I was lying back down on the bed, my head throbbing slowly and painfully. "It's all because you were being annoying," I insisted. "If you just let me punish him when I wanted in the first place..."

"Okay, okay," he complied, sounding amused. "It was my fault. Now will you _please _take the pain-killers?"

The main issue with the so-called 'pain-killers' was that they were this little capsule-things. If I swallowed them, it seemed like they would choke me. And I couldn't take that risk.

Could you imagine the humiliation? The most powerful Chain in the Abyss, being murdered by a couple of...of 'pills', as they are called. Tiny little things.

"I won't." I said.

"Come on. It's for your own good. Are you going to be able to do anything with that headache of yours?"

That was true.

I hurriedly sat up, clutching Oz's arm. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, holding a glass of water in one hand and the evil-looking pills in the other. "Are you sure they're not going to kill me?" I hissed.

He laughed. He _laughed _at me! Like it was my fault for being paranoid! "Don't worry," he said, placing the pills in my palm. "Just put them in your mouth and swallow them with the water. It's simple. Don't think about it."

Simple...for him, maybe. He was all human. I couldn't say the same for myself.

I didn't want to seem like a coward in front of him, though, so I tossed the two pills into my mouth before hurriedly glugging water.

It was not a nice experience. I thought I was being suffocated. From the inside of my throat.

I took giant gasps after the evil pills slid down my throat. "Are you okay?" Oz asked, but he didn't sound worried at all. I glanced at him to find him barely stifling a grin. He thought this was funny!

"I'm not laughing," he said, his voice shaking. "Honest." He cleared his throat. "Anyways. Let's have a talk."

"About what?" I asked grumpily.

"That memory."

What - oh. _That _memory. It was silent for a moment.

"I don't know," I said quietly. "I've only got two...counting the one I didn't even see, but you told me about. So I can't put any of it together."

I felt Oz staring at me. "It's okay," he told me. "As much as it's probably bad for society...there are bound to be more Chains out there with your memories."

"But..." I swallowed before saying, "How many Chains can there be? People have countless memories. For each Chain to only have one..."

I was starting to have doubts. That was bad. Maybe it was because I was shaken by the memory I had just gotten back.

My sister had never been a nice person to me. She showered me with the constant "I love you"s, but all of those were either too sweet-sounding or filled with poison. After thinking about it, her "love" for me was more of an obsession.

So in that memory? Where we held hands and smiled at each other?

It wasn't nice.

It was scary.

A moment later, I felt Oz's hand on the top of my head. "It'll all work out somehow," he told me brightly.

For the second time that day, my face felt hot. The heat seemed to be spreading directly from where his fingers came into contact with my head. And my ears were burning this time, too. What was this...'embarrassment'?

...Why? Why was I feeling...embarrassed?

"I almost forgot!" Oz exclaimed. He got to his feet. "I'll be right back!" He hurried out of the room.

I stared after him, the heat not leaving my cheeks. As soon as he was out of sight, I slapped at my face, fruitlessly trying to make its temperature back to normal.

Something was wrong with me...

"Ta-da!"

I glanced up to find Oz standing in the doorway, holding up a red-and-white striped box triumphantly.

..._Meat._

I was so eager to get to my food that I got tangled in the blankets of the bed, tripping myself in the process.

I don't know what happened, but the world spun and spun and spun until I collapsed noisily on top of something...unusually soft?

When I lifted my head, I was on top of Oz.

Somehow, in the few moments while I was falling, he had thrown himself right underneath me.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"O-of course I am!" I said, wondering why I was stuttering. And why my face kept on heating up until I felt like the skin would burn off. "G-good job, manservant! You c-caught me j-just in time!"

That sounded stupid.

He blinked at me for a moment before a smile spread across his face. He reached out a hand and poked my cheek with a finger.

"Why is your face red?" he chuckled. "You're not falling in love with me, are you?"


	29. Update

Hello readers!

Please please please read this.

This is not an update; but an announcement.

I realize that I have not updated lately - at all. T-T I would love to, but there are so many things going on that it becomes almost impossible.

First, school has started and crap has started piling on top of me. I have schoolwork, tests, projects, not to mention recently there's a borderline-stalker following me around and I've been preoccupied with getting rid of him. Also, two of my friends are now going through mental breakdowns, depression, or both, and honestly I've been too worried about them to think about developments for this story.

That is my main problem. In addition to all that, I also have three other fanfictions on this account, not to mention two other accounts by themselves which account up to nearly ten more stories. I've placed so many of them on hiatus; and as much as I would not like to, I might be forced to officially do that to this one, too.

I am so sorry for not updating this story; when I have the time and inspiration I DEFINITELY will. Please stay patient with me and keep your support, because I will definitely need it.


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